Project:

Date:
Client:
Contractor:
Location:

Laverton Creek Railway Culverts

August 2012
Melbourne Water
Winslow Infrastructure
Ravenhall, Victoria

Rockfall Protection - Steelgrid HR30

Winslow Infrastructure was contracted by
Melbourne Water to construct a drainage facility
underneath the existing Melbourne to Ballarat rail
line.
The drainage scheme consisted of seven large
culverts running parallel to one another. The
culverts are 1650mm diameter pipes that were
installed using pipe jacking techniques. The culverts
have 6m of cover to the existing rail line and the
culvert lengths are all 50m.
The drive and reception pits that were excavated in
rock are part of the main inlet and outlet structures
and are to be finished after the tunnelling
operations have been completed.

Steelgrid HR30 mesh cast into the top concrete edge beam

As part of the temporary works to support the rock

slopes, Winslow Infrastructure determined that an
anchored rockfall protection mesh was required to
stabilise the face to protect workers in the pits from
possible rock detachments. The geology of the
excavation was basalt with various degrees of
weathering.
The requirement for the mesh system was that it
needed to be high strength, low strain/displacement
and be easily anchored to the slope. The mesh
selected was the Steelgrid HR30 supplied by
Geofabrics Australasia.
Due to the Steelgrid HR30s inherent stiffness and
unmatched strength vs strain relationship (184kN/m
at only 6%), the mesh does not need to be
tensioned in position on the slope, does not require
depressions around the anchor heads to mobilise
its strength and does not need overlapping
between panels of mesh. This reduces installation
time for this already cost effective system.

The Steelgrid HR30 mesh bolted to the rock face notice how
the system conforms to the uneven rock surface

Steelgrid HR is a geocomposite mesh made from steel wire and

high tensile cables, woven together during hexagonal double twist
wire mesh manufacture. The Steelgrid HR geocomposite is
particularly suitable for use as a rockfall protection drapery
system or for improvement of surface or soil veneer slope
stability. When used in combination with the Steelgrid HR system
anchor plates (and sometimes also externally applied horizontal
or oblique/zigzag cables) the mesh offers considerable
installation related advantages when employed in a surface
stabilisation role.
The principle advantages of Steelgrid HR are its high strength,
high mechanical stiffness and the strong coupling of the loads
acting on the system to the crestline anchors which arise from the
longitudinally interwoven cables. The steel wire used in the
manufacture of the double twisted wire mesh is heavily
galvanized with Galmac, a Zinc/Aluminium alloy. The double twist
mesh helps to prevent unravelling of the mesh should any
individual wires rupture. A totally PVC coated option (mesh and
cables) is available for aggressive environmental conditions.
Steelgrid HR is available in three variants: 30, 50 and 100. In all
three options, the 8mm diameter high tensile steel (1770N/mm2)
cables are used in place of the conventional selvedge wire and
are also longitudinally inter-woven within the mesh at nominal
spacings of 300mm, 500mm and 1000mm respectively depending
on the required performance criteria.

The Steelgrid HR30 installed in one of the pits