Australian dam cut to shape with diamond wire

Diamond wire sawing played a crucial role in a recent dam upgrade project in Queensland, Australia. It was used to remove the top 3.55 m from a 40 m long reinforced concrete spillway which involved as much as 96 square metres of wire sawing in a single 24 hour period.

The work, which was carried out to comply with recently introduced safety regulations, comprised two horizontal wire saw cuts through the 8 x 40 m spillway allowing removal in two benches with additional works including an additional isolation slot at the west spillway abutment and three 40 m long, 900 mm deep saw cuts across the spillway, one on the upper bench and two on the lower. These cuts were extended to the 1800 mm depth required for each bench with hydraulic splitting equipment placed into cored holes to break the concrete into manageable blocks for lifting and carting away.

All access system dependant works were completed less than two weeks after commencement of wire sawing operations. This involved a total of 640 m2 of horizontal and 30 m2 of vertical wire sawing, with 160 linear m of associated wire access holes. In addition, there were 40 linear m of 900 mm deep sawing with 120 m of associated 100 mm core drilling.

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