Demystifying Temporary Working Platforms for Piling Rigs and Cranes

Dr Martin Larisch

The design and construction of temporary working platforms and their access tracks is required to safely operate piling rigs and cranes. However, temporary working platforms can add significant costs to construction projects and it is therefore important to optimise their design and construction methods. Specialist piling or ground improvement contractors can win or lose projects based on their working platform requirements and the associated cost, program and safety implications can vary tremendously, depending on various parameters which are briefly discussed in this presentation.

The design and construction of safe and efficient temporary working platforms requires a detailed understanding of the pile construction methodology or the most critical crane lift as the plant loads applied through tracks or outriggers can vary with different activities like standing, tracking, lifting, drilling or extracting of piling augers. The assessment of such pressures is complex and typically requires experienced personnel with in-depth knowledge of the different operational modes of different piling and/ or lifting operations. Such load inputs are critical for the working platform design. However, the subsurface conditions are as important as the load inputs and they must be sufficiently understood by the temporary working platform designer in order to correctly select the geotechnical design parameters.

The platform design can be carried out by following different approaches and the presentation will briefly introduce two common design methods (BRE BR470 and TWF2024).

After the successful construction of the platform, suitable verification methods are applied to provide evidence that the platform was built to meet the required design criteria and after the successful verification a platform certificate can be issued to the piling contractor/ crane supplier to confirm safe operations under the given load/ subgrade assumptions.

This presentation provides a brief overview about the steps which are typically required to design and construct safe and economical temporary working platforms.

About the speaker

Dr Martin Larisch Director – Larisch Consulting Ltd

Martin Larisch is a Fellow with Engineers Australia and Engineering New Zealand with more than 25 years of international design and construction experience in the piling and ground engineering sector. He is currentyl based in New Zealand and assists clients in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific with temporary work designs, design reviews, constructability assessments and independent expert services.

Before he started his own independent Engineering Consultancy Firm in 2023, he worked in various technical and operational leadership roles for some of the largest specialist piling, ground improvement contractors and general contractors in Australia, New Zealand and Germany. During this time, he gained in-depth experience in the design and verification of temporary working platforms for piling rigs and cranes including the assessment of the bearing pressures for tracked piling rigs and crawler cranes.

He was affiliated with The University of Queensland in Brisbane as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Geotechnical Engineering Centre from 2014 to 2021. He was also a member of the Temporary Works Forum in Australia and New Zealand.

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