1. 78 Australian Bulk Handling Review: November/December 2012
Stage 2AA yielded no lost time in-
cidents and both stage 1 and 2AA
of construction and expansion had in
excess of seven million hours for the
project. Stage 2AA was delivered under
schedule and budget.
Key to this success was the close
working relationship between Aurecon
Hatch and the NCIG owner’s team that
was achieved through the EPCM model.
Stage 1 of the project met the key first
coal on ship milestone six weeks ahead
of schedule, a major achievement particu-
larly given the constraints that faced the
project team in the market.
However, Stage 2AA proved that the
Stage 1 achievement could be exceeded
with a schedule delivery 20 weeks early
and $120m under budget. Stage 2F is cur-
rently designed and tracking well for the fi-
nal stage to expand the terminal to 66mtpa.
Innovative designs and flexible con-
struction methods enabled the project
team to meet challenges and overcome is-
sues including the limit of lay down areas
on site and exploring offsite fabrication
and modularisation of conveyor assem-
bly. The team also had sourced plant with
new methods to stabilise and improve
ground works.
The PACE Award winning control
system upgrade that was integrated into
operating the facility was just one of the
features utilised by the team to deliver
stage 2AA.
The rigorous design verification
process coupled with established qual-
ity assurance systems and procedures
ensured minimal rework on site. This
contributed in a major way to achieving
the project schedule, budget and start up
requirements.
1 The Project
Background
Aurecon Hatch was initially engaged in
May 2004 by the NCIG for its greenfield
coal export terminal development at the
Port of Newcastle. The latest round of
work for Aurecon Hatch was to increase
throughput of the terminal to 53mtpa in
the stage 2AA project.
The requirements for NCIG stage 2AA
project were:
• Expand the existing 30mtpa capacity
coal export terminal to 53mtpa
• Develop a facility that is inherently safe
that complies with NSW and NCIG’s
Health, Safety, Environment and Com-
munity (HSEC) requirements during
design, construction and operations
• Expand the facility, with an emphasis
on innovation and appropriate tech-
nology to minimise the construction
workforce and the on-going operation-
al staffing requirements
The table below provides comparison
of the difference between Stage 1 and
Stage 2AA
Specific project requirements in-
cluded the following detailed design,
procurement and construction for the
Stage 2AA expansion:
• New dump station complete with
Kwik-Drop trigger and whisker trigger
train unloading technologies
• New arrival and departure rail lines to
service the new dump station, includ-
ing second viaduct
• New 8,500tph inbound conveyor
stream incorporating feeders, belt
conveyors, tramp metal magnet-
ic separator, moisture meters and
weightometers
• New inbound sampling station
• New yard conveying stream incorpo-
rating dewatering and magnetic tramp
metal separator
• New 10,500tph nominal capacity
stacker-reclaimer SR03
• Additional machine berm and stock-
yard pads
• Upgrades to existing conveyors to in-
clude new shuttle head systems, allow-
ing feed from any dump station to any
stacker-reclaimer and from any stack-
er-reclaimer to any shiploader
• Extension of existing outbound con-
veyor CV12 to allow feed from new
stacker-reclaimer SR03 to existing
shiploader SL01
• Construction of new 2,000t buffer bin
incorporating two new bottom draw
belt feeders
• New 10,500tph outbound conveyor
stream feeding new shiploader SL02
• New outbound sampling station
• New 10,500tph nominal capacity ship-
loader SL02 to operate across both
berths K8 and K9
2 Complexity, challenges and
solutions
During Stage 2AA, there was complex
scope and activity to undertake and some
NCIG coal export terminal stage 2AA
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) engaged Aurecon Hatch as EPCM for the staged expansions of its
terminal at the Port of Newcastle. The expansion aims to grow the facility, in stages, to an ultimate capacity of
66mtpa. The second stage of the project, dubbed 2AA, expanded the facility from 30mtpa to 53mtpa. Work on
2AA is now complete.
COAL HANDLING
Figure 1 - Aurecon Hatch personnel: project manager Bruce Anderson and construction manager Wayne Dawson on site.

2. challenging issues that the team were
faced with. As this section will elaborate,
some innovative and clever solutions
were implemented.
Stage 1 had introduced its own chal-
lenges and complexities that the team
were able to overcome, and heading into
Stage 2AA, the team were well prepared
and armed with knowledge to improve
on duplicate scope.
2.1 Innovations in material
handling technologies
The innovations throughout the Stage
2AA project have been evident and
include the following:
• Transfer chutes across the terminal
were upgraded with segmented de-
flector plate designs to better cen-
tralise the coal loading at the chang-
ing conveying rates, from start up to
steady state conveying, significantly
reducing belt tracking issues during
early commissioning.
• All existing and new Stacker-Reclaim-
er centre chutes were upgraded with
custom-built Tasman Warajay chutes
to help improve yard belt loading and
remove the need for impact cradles.
• Iterative design in ultrasonic bin level
detection systems and the
implementation of a
“cascade flow” method.
Through incremental con-
trol of the bin bottom belt
feeders, the stop/start of
coal to the berths for ship
loading has effectively
been eliminated. This
“cascade” flow functional-
ity has allowed stacker-re-
claimers and ship loaders
to operate continuously
without creating bottle-
necks at the buffer bins.
• System improvements to the stockyard
management and stacker reclaimer
control systems significantly reduced
air digging and machine relocation
inefficiencies and have allowed for
a more continuous flow into the out-
bound conveyors.
Other innovative materials handling
improvements involved the inclusion of
shuttle heads on the major yard convey-
ors. This allows for any stacker-reclaim-
er, new and existing, to feed into either
of the outbound streams increasing ef-
ficiency and availability of the entire
terminal.
79Australian Bulk Handling Review: November/December 2012
COAL HANDLING
Figure 2 - Aerial of Kooragang Island looking onto NCIG terminal.

3. 80 Australian Bulk Handling Review: November/December 2012
The shuttle heads on the dump sta-
tion discharge conveyors also allow for
either dump station to feed any stockyard
pad. Installation of these shuttle heads
can be seen below.
2.2 Learning from Stage 1
An effective strategy employed by Au-
recon Hatch was ensuring the continu-
ity of the learnings and experience were
carried all the way through the NCIG
stages; experts and specialists from these
prior projects were included in the Au-
recon Hatch team from the very first
engagement.
Aurecon Hatch cycled members from
the design team onto site, and site con-
struction members to the design office.
This transition between offices helped to
ensure any solutions developed in Stage
1 construction were captured and imple-
mented into the Stage 2AA design.
In addition to learning lessons from
Stage 1, Aurecon Hatch also considered
other projects in the Asia Pacific region,
including Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal
expansions, Hay Point Coal Terminal ex-
pansions, RG Tanna Coal Terminal and
Abbot Point Coal Terminal expansion.
2.3 Interface with terminal
operations
As the entire terminal was designed with
staged upgrades in mind, the Stage 2AA
works were carried out with minimal inter-
face with the existing terminal. Cut-ins with
existing plant were kept to a bare minimum.
A significant amount of pre-works
was planned and conducted around the
ongoing maintenance shutdowns at the
terminal. Any major tie-ins, specifically
the conveyor shuttle head upgrades, were
scheduled around the quarterly ARTC
shutdowns where the entire Hunter Val-
ley coal chain closes for up to a week to
conduct rail maintenance and other infra-
structure upgrades.
The result was zero delays to opera-
tion in returning the upgraded plant back
into service.
2.4 Civil innovations in ground
improvement works
2.4.1 Soil mixing
Where the strength and stability of re-
claimed and dredged material, intended
for stockyard construction, was lower
than required by design a regime of in-
jecting cementitious agents into the wet
soil was undertaken. This innovative pro-
cedure utilises a specialised excavator
head that allows the injection and mixing
of these agents into the soil matrix.
Furthermore, the use of innovative
modelling and tracking techniques en-
sured consistency of the material dosage
and the final quality of the homogenised
material layer.
This method not only increases the
strength and stability of the stockyards
but allows for the use of otherwise un-
suitable remnant dredged fines (saturat-
ed silts) for construction.
2.4.2 Vibro-stone columns
Another innovative technique to increase
the strength of the foundation in situ,
whilst also limiting the anticipated settle-
ment was the use of Vibro stone columns.
The implementation of this method in-
volves a technique that uses a specialised
vibrating apparatus located on a crawler
crane that injects aggregate rock into the
soil matrix with the aim to increase friction
strength and global stability. This alternate
method reduces the need for pile driving, an
inherently risky and hazardous operation.
2.5 Increased modularisation of
stacker-reclaimer sub-assemblies
Expanding on the modular construction
methods pioneered in Stage 1, the third
stacker-reclaimer SR03 underwent com-
plete trial assembly of its various major
fabricated components in South Korea. It
received substantial levels of mechanical
and electrical fit-out before being made
ready for shipping to Newcastle.
Entire sub-assemblies were construct-
ed and fitted out offsite in South Korea and
shipped whole to site, when normally they
COAL HANDLING
Figure 3 - Stacker-reclaimer SR03 and sister machine SR02.
Figure 4 - First coal reclaim over stacker-reclaimer SR03.

4. would’ve been stick-built onsite. By being
able to identify and rectify clash points pri-
or to arrival onsite, a considerable amount
of re-work was saved, allowing for a more
efficient construction schedule.
In addition to this, with the need for
stick-build and fit-out removed from site,
space-critical laydown areas were freed up.
2.6 Modularisation of conveyor
assemblies
Modularisation techniques were also
carried over to the conveyor modules
and galleries. With the idler fit-out, ser-
vice installation and coarse conveyor
alignment occurring locally offsite, this
again reduced the construction time and
the requirements for expansive laydown
areas onsite.
2.7 Delivery of shiploader SL02
from Korea to Newcastle
The second ship loader, SL02, was fabri-
cated, constructed and assembled in its
entirety in South Korea, prior to being
dismantled into four major components
and loaded onto the heavy lift vessel,
the Happy Buccaneer, for its voyage to
Newcastle.
The preparation for the discharge
procedure of the ship loader took months
in the planning and an entire week in
the execution once the Happy Buccaneer
reached Newcastle.
Lessons learnt from the Stage 1 deliv-
ery of Shiploader SL01 were incorporated
into the offloading procedure, with addi-
tional structure being pre-assembled onto
the boom shuttling mechanism to improve
load stability, and a specialist loading sens-
ing Synchoist system being fitted to the
lifting bars to assist in levelling the load.
The shiploader SL02 was also weighed
in South Korea prior to dismantling and
shipping, so that the exact centre of
81Australian Bulk Handling Review: November/December 2012
COAL HANDLING
Figure 5 - Conveyor shuttle heads on yard conveyors. Figure 6 - Shiploader SL02 and wharf conveyor CV22.
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gravity of the machine could be estab-
lished for the delicate off-load procedure.
With the Happy Bucanneer berthed
at NCIG, a pair of high-capacity crawler
cranes, 650t and 750t respectively, assist-
ed in the discharge of the ship loaders’
tripper and portal structures, lifting the
250t tripper structure in its entirety over
the two existing berth conveyors and
onto its rails.
With all preparations made, the lift
was conducted over the live existing con-
veyor that feeds shiploader SL01, during a
hatch change on the ship berthed at K8.
The lift was successful with not even a
minute’s delay to the loading of that vessel.
The ship loader discharge effort cul-
minated in the main 760t bridge struc-
ture being lifted from the ship by the two
ships’ cranes, balanced on a pair of lifting
beams spaced a mere 6m apart around
the bridges’ centre of gravity.
Over the course of an entire day, the
bridge structure extended to 100m in
length, was cantilevered out onto the K9
wharf and slowly lowered into position,
where ground crews inserted the final
pins and bracing members. The entire of-
fload process placed minimal impact upon
the operating Terminal, with existing ship
loader SL01 still maintaining a consistent
ship loading regime on K8 throughout.
2.8 Control system integration
into existing terminal
The NCIG Stage 2AA control system
provided a modern robust automation
solution for the coal terminal’s infrastruc-
ture, which would allow a minimum staff
of 50 to operate and maintain the plant.
This required a high level of automa-
tion, extensive diagnostics and condition
monitoring, first up alarm system and
integration of data between the controls
and corporate systems. Implementation
was in a fast track schedule.
The control system, based on high-
end PLCs, uses state of the art technol-
ogy; the motor control centres are fitted
with advanced multifunction protection
relays and are bus controlled. Variable
speed drives (VSD) and high voltage (HV)
switchgear are also bus interfaced and
controlled.
The upgraded Stage 2AA system al-
lows NCIG to:
• Monitor incoming rail deliveries and
shipping outputs
• Manage stockpiles, site-manage prod-
uct and customer billing
• Monitor energy and services usage
such as water
• Provide staff with tools to achieve key
performance indicators.
The project delivered improved qual-
ity and reduced risk, reduced downtime,
and a stable and robust SCADA platform.
The adopted approach resulted in a safe
design and implementation delivered ear-
ly and under budget.
2.9 Commissioning
improvements and milestones
NCIG operations personnel were engaged
by Aurecon Hatch and incorporated into
the commissioning team to lend their ex-
perience to the commissioning process.
This NCIG involvement raised the opera-
tors familiarity with the new systems, al-
lowing for a smooth hand-over of control
of the expansion for operations.
Sacrificial coal product for load com-
missioning was brought in ahead of
schedule to test the new system, specifi-
cally to highlight any issues whilst they
could be rectified easily and effectively
by the labour forces still present onsite.
Redundancy in the system design
afforded by the shuttle heads allowed
for minimal disruption to ongoing
Stage 1 terminal operation whilst
the Stage 2AA system was being
commissioned.
System redundancy allowed for
the hot-swapping of trains, stacker-
reclaimers and ship loaders between
commissioning and operating duty.
Both new machines, SR03 and
SL02, along with their respective
inbound and outbound conveyor
streams were brought up to name-
plate capacities (10,500tph) on each
of their respective first days of load
commissioning.
This was a significant improvement
over Stage 1, which took days of staged
ramp-up to bring up the equipment to
nameplate capacity.
2.10 Machine to machine anti-
collision systems
With two shiploaders now operating
across both berths K8 and K9, a SIL
rated anti-collision system for the two
machines was developed with close in-
volvement from all stakeholders, NCIG,
Aurecon Hatch and the machine design-
ers, Sandvik.
This system incorporates additional
on-board safety systems and location sen-
sors to determine the machine’s position
on the berth without relying on the op-
erator’s input.
This positional data is fed to an off-
board programmable logic controller
(PLC) tasked specifically with monitor-
ing the anti-collision system. If a potential
collision is detected or imminent, the an-
ti-collision system initiates a staged ramp
down of the machine movements along
the berths through a series of steps.
Should the stepped ramp down fail
to engage in sufficient time, the two ma-
chines are protected by final physical lim-
its in the form of opposing lances.
Once actuated by striking their oppo-
site number on the other machine, these
lances disengage the main 11kV power to
both machines and engage the fail-safe
long travel brakes.
3. Safety and quality
The first stage of the NCIG facility would
be the largest single stage coal export ter-
minal constructed in the world. As NCIG
was a new entity, it did not have access
to established resources or project pro-
cedures, and relied on Aurecon Hatch to
support them in many areas that would
typically be undertaken by the owners’
team.
The first and most significant request in
this regard was for Aurecon Hatch to take
on the role of principal contractor, and with
it all the statutory and legal obligations that
go with the role in regard to occupational
COAL HANDLING
Figure 7 - Shiploader SL02 final discharge lift onto berth K9.
Figure 8 - SR03 slewdeck delivery.
Figure 9 - The Happy Buccaneer.

6. health and safety on the project.
In response to NCIG’s request, Au-
recon Hatch was able to access estab-
lished in-house systems and procedures
that have been successfully deployed
and proven on many other major pro-
jects to manage, monitor and sup-
port the project’s safety programs and
initiatives.
A dedicated team of
safety professionals were
assigned to the project and
through a combination of
this team, comprehensive
procedures (backed by the
commitment to safety of
the project management
team) an exemplary result
was achieved in Stage 1,
with only one lost time
injury (resulting in three
days lost time) out of a to-
tal of 4.5 million man-hours
worked on site.
This achievement was
recognised in the WorkCov-
er NSW SafeWork Awards
2010, granting Aurecon
Hatch the coveted Safety
Leadership Award.
3.1 Lessons in safety
The single lost time incident on the project
occurred after approximately 2 million
hours and was investigated by the safety
team. Several lessons were learnt from it
and other incidents, which enabled a re-
visit of the procedures, communication of
safety standards and expectations.
Overall, the review following the in-
cident on site triggered the discussion on
safety attitudes, behaviours and the cul-
ture. The root cause and analysis of inci-
dents showed that they could have been
prevented through the continuous promo-
tion of behaviours to maintain on site and
an alignment of the stakeholders onsite.
Complacency is one of the natural
enemies of safety, and as the team con-
tinued works through to completion of
Stage 2AA, several changes were made.
The onsite induction process was re-
vised, refresher inductions issued to ex-
isting personnel, additional training was
offered to site personnel and awareness
of the root cause and analysis of inci-
dents were communicated to all person-
nel on site. The benefit of this effort did
not go unnoticed at completion of Stage
2AA, with this stage yielding no lost time
injuries.
Overall, since the last lost time injury,
the project team have completed approx-
imately 7 million work hours across all
stages onsite; 5 million work-hours and
almost three and a half years with an av-
erage workforce of 600 personnel.
COAL HANDLING
Figure 10 - First coal on ship from Stage 2AA.
Contact: www.aureconhatch.com.au
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