Condor Tower, Alcoa recognised

CONDOR Tower on St Georges Terrace has been awarded the major honour – the Sir William Hudson Award for engineering excellence – at the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards held last week.

The tower was one of 44 finalists at the national awards.

Engineering consultant Pritchard Francis oversaw construction of the building’s innovative ‘piggy-back’ style construction, which involved adding 18 storeys to an existing abandoned 10-storey building.

The ‘piggy-back’ construction method required custom engineering solutions, which resulted from four years’ research at the University of Western Australia.

At 100 metres high, the tower incorporates an underground car park, two commercial floors and 152 apartments across 25 floors.

The judges said the Condor Tower pushed the boundaries of building adaptability and sustainable design by demonstrating how obsolete structures with remaining design life and inherent strength could be recycled and transformed.

The judges said the project was an outstanding example of innovative Australian engineering that was truly world class.

The national award follows the tower’s receipt of top prize at the WA Engineering Excellence Awards earlier in the year.

A scientific research team with AlcoaWorld Alumina based in Perth was also recognised last week.

The Technology Delivery Group was presented with the Australian Government Engineering Innovation Award for breakthrough research that uses naturally occurring microorganisms to consume oxalate – an impurity in the alumina refinery process.

Oxalate removal is essential for high alumina quality and refinery production.

The new process is currently in operation at Alcoa’s Kwinana Refinery.

Alcoa TDG research chemist Amanda Tilbury believes it is the first time a continuous biological removal process has been implemented for this type of industrial work.

She said it was more than 10 years in the making and built on earlier work started by other alumina producers.

“The alternative oxalate destruction technique is very expensive and energy intensive, so this new process is saving Alcoa millions while at the same time significantly reducing our energy use,” Dr Tilbury said.

The judges were impressed with the extent of groundbreaking research and testing undertaken by Alcoa over 10 years and the ongoing PhD research studies into microorganisms and their actions in degrading oxalates.