Fairground and cricket ground heritage wall rescued
- Sydney, NSW
The Brief
Erected more than 80 years ago, this heritage wall was initially the turnstile entry point to a fairground which eventually became a cricket ground.
Due to age, multiple high-impact vehicle collisions and countless cricket ball thumps on test match days, the heritage wall was full of cracks and had been deemed by the local council to be extremely unsafe.
The local council was concerned the historical wall was unstable and could fall down at any moment. They were seeking a solution where the wall did not need to be completely torn down and rebuilt.
The Challenge
Upon assessment of the wall, our structural engineers found a variety of issues affecting its stability, outside of the obvious high-impact collisions from vehicles.
Over the 80 years since the heritage wall was erected, nearby large trees had matured. The tree roots had grown underneath the wall, shifting the foundations and causing cracks.
We also found steel reinforcements had been placed into the wall to stop it from collapsing, but over time, these reinforcements had aged poorly and completely corroded. Ironically, these reinforcements were now expanding, pulling and lifting the wall to the point where it was about to tip over.
Our Solution
We took action quickly. By using a variety of techniques, we were able to save the wall from collapse. We started by removing the old corroded steel reinforcements as they were destroying the heritage wall from the inside-out. By replacing them with our own specialist structural steel rods we stopped the expanding, pulling and lifting happening from inside the wall.
For the multitude of cracks throughout the wall, we employed crack stitching techniques to fasten the walls back together and refilled the cracks with fresh mortar for an aesthetically pleasing finish. Large sections of the heritage wall were also completely re-pointed. Decades old cement and lime mortar was raked out from between the old bricks and again, replaced with fresh mortar to increase the strength of the wall. We completed the project by injecting geopolymer resins, GeoPoly™, into the ground underneath the wall for extra stability.
The Outcome
Our methods saved the local council over $30,000 and preserved a heritage wall that had local and historical significance. The beautiful heritage façade of the wall remains in tact and is a reminder to locals in the area of what once was. While the roots from nearby trees had done damage to the wall, those roots had also fully matured. There was no need to remove them and damage the local environment. The wall stands firm and is is no longer at risk of falling over.
