EXPERTISE - High Rise construction
The Steel Reinforcement Institute of Australia
Reinforcing Australian Construction
Reinforced concrete framing systems have been proven to be the most economical form of construction for medium- to high-rise buildings, in Australia.
from the CCAA web site:
www.concrete.net.au/concreteconcepts/ See also SRIA Technical Article on Ten Good Reasons Why Concrete is the Preferred Building Frame Material CLICK HERE
by the building industry, and include:
Speed of construction - modern concreting methods including the extensive use of prefabricated reinforcement cages and precast concrete elements enables structures to be built with truly astonishing speed. The 47-storey Telecom Corporate building in Melbourne was constructed in record time with an average floor to floor cycle in its office areas of only 3 days!
Flexibility - the fluid nature of reinforced concrete makes changes in structural dimension, shape and direction easy, without the need for expensive and time-consuming pre-fabrication and one-off elements . Providing service penetrations through slabs, beams, walls and columns is also easily accommodated, as reinforcement can be displaced to form openings of any shape.
"Pay-as-you-use" - unlike many other materials which require a lot of money to be spent in the early stages of the contract for prefabrication of structural components, steel reinforcement needs to be paid for only as it is needed- usually the order is made no more than 72-hours before delivery is required!
Fewer on-site trades - allows follow-up work to begin the minute formwork is removed. As concrete teams are generalists there is no reliance on disparate specialist tradespersons who, if one or two are missing, can delay an entire job. Reinforced concrete is also innately fire-resistant, so there are no delays waiting for the structure to be fire-proofed.