Several years in the planning, Constructionarium Australia’s latest structure – a scale replica of the Eleanor Schonell Bridge – will make its debut in this year’s Brisbane All-Female Build program in partnership with Seymour Whyte.
Designed by our friends at SMEC, we caught up with Samiul Hossein, State Manager Queensland and NT, and designer Linda O’Hara to hear more about SMEC’s support for Constructionarium Australia and how you take an iconic structure and turn it into a 6-metre-high, 24-metre-long and 1:8 scale replica suitable for a training program.
“SMEC aim to be a purposeful organisation and to lead change in our industry where we can,” said Sami.
“Supporting Constructionarium means we’re supporting the future of our industry, through the learning and development of early careers professionals as well as the important opportunity to bring together different specialisms in the industry (designers, constructors, clients) to collaborate on a project. It offers an excellent learning and networking opportunity and a taste of a real-world project.”
“We also chose this particular build because of the all-female team. SMEC takes active steps to improve gender balance in the infrastructure industry, and part of that is giving female early careers professionals the opportunity to see what working in the industry is like, to meet like-minded colleagues and, hopefully, develop a passion for their chosen field.”
Constructionarium Australia also aligns with the values that SMEC hold, including increasing industry capacity and opportunities for personal development and growth.
“Our purpose at SMEC is to create and connect communities for present and future generations to thrive – and this includes the future generation of engineering, infrastructure and construction professionals. We are delighted to support Constructionarium because it offers a real-life training experience for early career professionals, something we believe is invaluable in setting them up for a successful and long career.”
“The development of our people is a core part of our organisation and culture, and our strategic focus is how we can deepen our partnership with industry and our clients, to support the best outcomes for all.”
With the new bridge used for the first time on an all-female build program; SMEC are excited about how the program will help support diversity and female participation in construction and infrastructure.
“Supporting more women to join the infrastructure industry is a key priority for us, so to partner with an all-female team completely made sense to us. Giving female students the opportunity to gain authentic experiences in engineering, infrastructure and construction is very important in motivating them to pursue careers in our industry. At SMEC, we want to support and develop more women to have long and purposeful careers in engineering, infrastructure, renewables and urban development.”
“We hope that participation in the program will break down some of the myths and stereotypes of the construction industry, so participants gain a clear sense of what goes on in a day’s work in the construction environment. We still see that not enough women are joining the industry, plus not many are staying long term, so hopefully this encourages more to join. I think that completing the build will give them such a tremendous sense pride and achievement and hopefully that sticks and they’re motivated to continue a career in their chosen field.”
“And as the build is taking place during International Women in Engineering Day, it’s also a great opportunity to highlight the exceptional women in the field. The bridge being built is named after the extraordinary Eleanor Schonell, who made an internationally recognised contribution for testing for dyslexia and working with children with cerebral palsy and supporting the education of children with intellectual disabilities.”
“SMEC first got involved in this project in 2017, so we’re so excited to finally see it completed, following unexpected delays from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Sami.
Linda O’Hara has been instrumental in taking an iconic Brisbane structure and turning it into the centrepiece for Constructionarium Australia’s training programs. We spoke to Linda about the design process and the challenges involved creating the bridge.
“Similar to our experience on many of our projects, the biggest challenge for creating the replica Eleanor Schonell Bridge was the unexpected delays and disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, “ said Linda.
“SMEC started on this project in 2017 and the six-year delay meant we’ve had to manage knowledge share and the transfer of the project between our team members, as well as a number of scope and material changes.”
“Originally, we created the design for construction using composite laminate timber (CLT), however that was changed when steel material became available and the client requested a variation. That changed many aspects of the build, including the weight and also how the material can be used, so it required a complete reworking of the design.”
“Scope change and variability of material is a real-world challenge, so it certainly made the project more realistic.”
Once the final specification was agreed, the task of designing the structure was fairly straightforward.
“The engineering component is very simple, with two planks of steel and a walkway. Once we understood the scale required, our greatest consideration was the site constraints, since the build needed to fit on existing, concrete footings. We needed to look at the materials available and make efficiencies for the construction, so it would be as easy as possible for the team who are building the structure.”
However, to ensure that participants could build the structure safely and within the limitations of a training program, the team at SMEC had to make some sensible changes to the original design.
“A big change was to the function of the cables. Since the original is a cable stayed bridge and typically those cables take a lot of the weight load. But in this case, because it’s smaller and part of a training program, we designed the replica so that cables didn’t take any load and are there for the aesthetic, so that it looks like the original. This makes is much easier for construction and the time the team have for the build.”
“For this training exercise, the design if very simple, but it is a stepping stone to more complex projects like the ones that I work on every day that a truly transforming the cities and communities that we live in.”
As the bridge is used for the first time, Linda shared a few thoughts on how our cohort should approach their build and the pathways an all-female build program creates for career in infrastructure for women.
“Their biggest challenge is that they are the first group and are starting from scratch. They will have no lessons learned from previous builds about what could go wrong, which is something we value in the industry, because we can only learn how to improve by doing.”
“Additionally, I think challenges will be lifting the structure, as it’s quite heavy, and also lining it up and bolting it to the existing concrete footings.”
And as with any design, Linda and the team at SMEC will take pride in seeing the structure come to life in the upcoming all-female build program.
“I am very pleased to see that there are enough participants to have a full team of women on the build. We’re really keen to have more women participating in the industry and, ideally, I would love to see an all-female team also leading the training on the build. Women can really picture a future in the industry for themselves, when they see other women already in the positions they aspire to.
“Seeing the structure come to life, built by women, will feel like a great step in encouraging more women to join our industry, which I’ve been a part of for 20 years. I really hope it motivates them to continue on the careers they’ve chosen.”
“SMEC has been involved in this build since 2017, so it will be fantastic to see it finally completed and to hopefully see the pride of the participants who completed the build,” said Linda.
