by Brian Hogan
If it wasn’t bad enough already.
It is amazing how the crowds would gather when there is something unusual happening in the community.
With more sirens blazing Hazmat arrived on site much to the concern of the locals as to what is happening at this site which was so close to the railway station and adjacent shops. The crowd was gathering to watch what was going on in their quiet neighbourhood.
Having tried to make this issue as quiet as possible with no media input, the situation that had developed now became even worse.
The day started as being well-planned with a visit by the Chief Executive. Now by lunch time there were certainly several issues that required resolution.
The Chief Executive was satisfied that it was handled as best could be and he quickly left the scene, so he would not be on site in case the media did eventually turn up. He asked me to ring him personally and advise him of the outcome and any issues that had arisen as a result.
By dusk though, the car owners were satisfied they were being looked after and Hazmat finally advised that the vials were out-of-date veterinarian animal drugs that had been dumped by person’s unknown some years earlier in the tall grass.
It is interesting though that the media follows the biggest stories of the day. Luckily for us, the media had bigger issues they were following up on that day so there was not one mention of the incident.
Me, well I worked a long day to sort out all the loose ends to ensure that this incident was investigated thoroughly and to ensure it would not happen again.
The Chief Executive was informed and happy with the outcome. I am sure he will think twice before he comes out to site again, particularly with me!
How do you manage this one?
I remember one day getting a call from the local coal mine at Coalcliff. The call went like this. Jonathon said, “Hi, my name is Jonathon and I am from Coalcliff coal mine. Is that Brian?”
“Yes, it is,” I said.
Jonathon replied, “I need to advise you of a situation we have at the mine”.
“How does this affect me?” I said.
Jonathon continued and said, “We were told that you are the District Engineer at Wollongong for City Rail and our problem on the mine site may impact your rail line”.
“Now you have me interested. How possibly could a problem on the mine site affect the rail line?” I replied.
Jonathon said, “Our dam wall upstream to your Stanwell Park Viaduct shows signs of failing”.
This dam was constructed by the mining company for the mining operations many years earlier and it contained a large quantity of water which was used for its mining operations. In it construction, 32 ground anchors were installed to hold up the dam wall. These ground anchors went for many metres into the bedrock below to provide additional strength for the dam wall to hold back the water behind it.
Jonathon stated, “We have a Company engaged who was in the process of testing these ground anchors to ensure they still were structurally sound. When the Company had completed tests on the first four of those anchors they found all four had failed so there is concern about the soundness of the other 28 anchors”.
He went on to say their concern was that it appeared the dam wall could topple over at any time if all the ground anchors installed were in the same condition as the four that were tested. The height of the water and its pressure behind the dam wall could cause the dam wall to topple over at any time.
Upon being advised of this dilemma, I said, “What would be the impact downstream if the dam wall did fail?”
He certainly had my attention.
Jonathon stated, “Upon the wall toppling over, a wall of water up to 20m high would race down the Stanwell Creek at a very high velocity such that it would most likely take out the Stanwell Park viaduct as it passed under the rail bridge”.
Jonathon went on to say, “There was a real concern this would happen so the mine is currently emptying out the dam, so they can affect repairs. The dam would then be refilled after repairs were finished”.
Photo 26 – Coalcliff Colliery and the Illawarra railway
I asked the obvious question. I said, “How long would that take to empty the dam to a level that meant the wall was then in a safe position”.
Jonathon replied, “It would take another twenty-four hours”.
He then hung up as he had done his job.
Wow what a predicament. Will the wall collapse, or will it be safe? What to do. Do I stop all trains for twenty-four hours whilst the dam was being emptied or do I let them continue running?
The trains needed to continue running. The issue was if the dam wall failed. I did not want the passengers to be hindered unnecessarily.
Quick I needed to make a decision on what to do. It was now my problem.
My solution was to place a shift of men on the viaduct to monitor the upstream stream water level and watch for any water level changes. If they saw any changes occurring to the water level over the next twenty-four hours, then they were to immediately contact the Wollongong Signal Complex who would in turn would all the signals to red and stop all trains.
The twenty-four-hour period passed and fortunately the dam did not fail prior being emptied. None of the passengers knew of the threat that could have occurred or what we were facing.
The Colliery advised that the water level had dropped to a safe level some twenty-four hours later. Life returned to normal and I could focus on other issues I had at hand.
It is one of those times you wonder when you pick up the telephone what is going to be said on the other end that will change your focus and your day. It is amazing that you can plan your day and so many times it changes from that plan.
Another Rock Slide
During periods of heavy rain on the Illawarra Line invariably sections of the rail corridor incurred numerous slips and rock slides on the rail cuttings and rail embankments. In fact, during my time managing this rail corridor, slides and failures of the cuttings and embankments just happened without even having rain as the catalyst.
During one of these rainy periods I received a phone call from the local train control that a train driver advised there is a large boulder “sliding” towards the track. I decided to check the site so arranging for the local staff to attend travelled to Scarborough to inspect the site where the driver had made the observation. I thought to myself the train driver was pretty vigilant to detect a moving rock whilst he was driving the train to Wollongong.
The large rock was in fact a 20-tonne boulder which was laying on a 30-degree cutting slope and moving slowly toward the track.
No wonder he saw the boulder as he drove the train.
Photo 27 - Removal of the last segments of the boulder
The boulder was clear to see for every one on the trains as well if they were not looking toward the ocean and taking in those magnificent views. Sitting precariously on the slope the way it was, it was a wonder it had not already slid down the incline already. Time was of the essence to sort out the problem.
Photo 28 - Close up of the boulder being removed
It was larger in size than a concrete truck. I wandered around the site to determine the impact of the movement and to check to see if there were any other rocks or debris moving as well. There were no other problems on site just this one 20 tonne boulder. It appears that the Baldhill Claystone material support beneath the rock had collapsed hence the rock was on the move. It was heading directly toward the track and the trains some 20 metres below. I estimated that if we had heavy rain, in less than 8 hours it would be lying on the track. No trains on either track would be running and the Illawarra line would be closed.
What do I do?
Running trains was the focus to ensure reliability of the timetable. Hence, I needed to firstly set up a monitoring system for the movement of the boulder. No way to go into electronic solutions. There was not enough time. By the time electronic monitoring would be installed the boulder would be on the trac
k. I had to set up a crude monitoring process.
I arranged for my staff to be rotated and to stay on site to regularly measure the distance of between the boulder and a fixed non-moving rock shelf about 10 metres beside the moving boulder. This was to determine the boulder’s rate of movement. I set a limit for its movement whereby if the boulder reached a particular point, the track would be closed to rail traffic. In the interim my person on site conducted regular measurements on a 15-minute interval and recorded the results.
I approved for a local contractor to be engaged quickly to drill the boulder and plug the drill holes with expanding grout. This was to break the large boulder into manageable smaller sections to allow its safe removal from the site.
The contractor promptly arrived on site and commenced work. A line of holes was drilled. Self-expanding liquid grout was then poured into these holes. I stayed on site for some of the work as it was estimated that the rock splitting sequence would take some time to be completed. It was very interesting watching the expanding grout harden. As the grout hardened there was a large amount of noise associated with the cracking of the rock itself, then a large “pop” as the rock suddenly broke up along the drill lines.
Once the boulder was broken up it was just a matter of its removal and the whole site tidied up. All this work was completed whilst trains continued to move below and passengers were not aware of what was going on above them.
Just another interesting day in the life of being a rail maintenance manager.
who does one employ?
In the days when I was involved in the construction of the Pt Kembla Coal Loader, the process for engagement of day labour staff was very simple. As they were deemed construction staff they were not seen as permanently engaged staff but rather a day labour resource.
So, the engagement was left up to the person managing the project. Consequently, we would leave a message with the local employment office at Wollongong that we required the engagement of number of staff and if they could send double that number of staff required to be employed, for interviews. We even interviewed those looking for work from the local hotel at Coniston, where we left a message with the publican, that if one needed a job here is the phone number to ring to organise an interview.
The interview process was fairly simple in that as they were daily paid staff and could be dismissed with only one days’ notice. The issue of employing the wrong person was not a risk but even so we ensured that we were not wasting our time or theirs. Interviews focussed on age of applicant, previous construction experience, the ability to learn, working in a team environment, availability for doing overtime and medical restrictions.
Interviews invariably went like this.
I asked, “what is your name?”
Interviewee, “Richard.”
I asked the obvious question, “Why did you apply for this position?”
Interviewee, “Well mate, I have no work.” (At least they were honest).
I then explored the applicants experience, “Do you have any construction experience?”
Interviewee, “No mate, but I can learn it. I can do whatever you want me to do as I am fit and strong”.
I then asked a question I always knew the answer to, “Can you work overtime?”
Interviewee, “Mate, I have been out of work for over three months, so I need the money. I will work any hours you want”.
Now for the nitty gritty question, I asked, “Do you have any restrictions that might stop you from doing heavy manual labour?”
Interviewee, “No mate, does splints on my wrist cause any problems?”
I then followed up with, “Thanks for coming in. We will let you know later in the day how you went”.
With not many jobs available in the local job market especially for construction work at the time, many staff turned up for the interviews. We also paid quite handsomely for a good day’s work. Also, if they stayed on there were also promotion prospects if they proved themselves.
It was interesting when some were given a job and started the next day they only lasted to morning tea then left because they stated” we worked them too hard”. Others lasted a week, got their first pay then disappeared by having a drunken binge, others just disappeared without being heard of again after a number of weeks’ work. It was hard to find reliable workers. Consequently, were always interviewing for new staff. Mind you we had an old Scottish ganger who whilst being fair, and never asked his staff to do anything he would not do, ensured his men worked for the wages they earned.
Some of the starters though were good workers and progressed through the ranks of labourer to ganger to foreman. It is interesting that the non-skilled staff could progress through the ranks to management positions, but the skilled staff stayed at the level they were at. For example, a carpenter was always a carpenter.
Some of the interviews were interesting. I remember one interview where the male applicant brought his wife along as well. He could only speak limited English so, he told us, that he wanted to make sure he understood the question asked so he answered it properly. In reality though I think he brought his wife along, so she could proposition those on the interview panel to ensure he got the job. She certainly did that when she asked to speak to us after the interview in private. Obviously, he did not get the job.
They were a really different type of people in general so over the life of the Project which lasted nearly three years we went through quite a number of people with only a handful lasting till the end of the Project. Those that left were happy to go from job to job and work when they needed some instant cash to live on. In those days they were paid in cash as there was no technology readily available to pay into their accounts. I wonder how they coped with so much money in their pockets and going about their business. I often thought about robbery being a large risk at the time.
One fellow we put on was a part indigenous. He was a good worker and he often had to be told when to stop as if you asked him to dig a hole and didn’t tell him how deep, he would continue to dig till he hit China. I remember one time he was working on the track loops in the middle of Lake Collette where construction of the overhead wiring footings was taking place. Instead of jumping into the gang truck one day to come back to the depot for lunch, he decided to walk back. But in walking back he decided to cross Lake Collette. This Lake had dried up and as such had a thin crust of mud. It was like a lake that had frozen up whereby there was thick muddy water below that crust.
We watched him boldly walk across the Lake then as he arrived in the centre of the Lake he lost his footing as he went through crust. After that he crawled on his hands and knees the rest of the way to make sure he did not go through again. It was a very slow process. It took him nearly two hours to do so.
He also had a habit of on pay day, going out and hiring a car from the local car hire company so he could travel around easier. Then about two days before the next pay day he had run out of all his money, so he returned the car and asked his mates for loans to buy some food till the next pay day.
When we closed over the Christmas break, he was paid and said he was going to a big corroboree in South Australia. We told him when work recommenced in the New Year and he stated he would be back by then. We never saw him again.
We certainly saw some interesting characters, such is life with transient employment of staff.
Stop that Fire!
During my role whilst managing the contract works for the geotechnical stabilisation of a location called “Seabank” near Stanwell Park, I also supervised the day labour construction works.
These day labour works provided the on-site interface for the contract to install piezometric vertical wells along the rail embankment to drain the ground water away from the horizontal rock layers to inhibit ground movement. Large drainage pipes were installed beneath the rail track to connect to “half round’ pipes which were laid down the rail embankment face. The design used for the first-time galvanised half round pipes. A first
at the time as this type of design was not used within 10 kilometres of the coast due to corrosion issues.
To install the drains down the steep rail embankment the embankment face required clearing. It primarily consisted of a weed called lantana with some natural vegetation and trees. In looking at the site it was decided to burn the vegetation to provide the level of vegetation clearing required for the construction of the open drains. This meant that the existing trees could then remain with the lantana and other material growth being removed.
Plans were put into place. The local bush fire brigade notified. Their depot was near the base of the embankment, so they were close on hand. The fire was started at numerous locations along the embankment. All the undergrowth was removed with the burning, but the lantana refused to ignite.
What was not apparent was that the rail embankment was widened using coal ash from steam trains in the past. It was a way of finding dump sites for the ash which was produced in copious amounts. The ash was dumped straight over the edge of the embankment and I was widened gradually over a number of years. There was only a thin layer of organic material placed over the embankment to cover the ash fill. This meant that through our burning off works the embankment was also ignited!
Wow, how does one put out a slowly combusting subterranean fire?
This was not studied at University or in any of the subsequent training I carried out.
Palls of smoke slowly rose from the embankment at various sites.
All our effort then went into trying to extinguish an underground fire which was consuming the ash and collapsing the embankment at the same time. Applying water would only fuel the fire more.