WHARF WHISPERS – DARWIN CITY WATERFRONT APPEARS

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January 2007

New Year, and it's cruise ship time! Spare a thought for the poor old steelfixers, sweating under that storm laden sky, whilst overshadowed by the cruiseliner "Sapphire Princess". Weighing in at a mere 116,000 tons of floating five star luxury, the long suffering passengers have to endure the indignity of only one crew member for every two passengers :-) It's enough ta make ya wanna toss ya knips and go ta the pub!!




Plenty of fine weather during January meant that roadworks progressed well, considering the time of year. Seen here is Wolpers Grahl crew, hard at it building a roundabout, on the intersection of McMinn Street and Frances Bay Drive. Although it's not that obvious from the image, the intersection has been raised about one metre to improve drainage; that bitumen roller might be a bit premature though!

Now that the Convention Centre plenary floor is well underway, it's time to raise the precast wall panels another lift. Although heavy to lift, as you can see from the 2 x 70 tonne cranes need to achieve the necessary reach, concrete panels, precast off-site, have revolutionized the construction industry.





Convention Centre construction powered on during January with good progress on all fronts. The expanded image shows that by the end of the month, even the second floor is well advanced; and yes, that's a roof truss standing there!