COMPANY INSIGHT

Providing Best Practice Solutions To Manage Geotechnical And Strata Control Risks

Established in Wollongong, Australia in 1989, Strata Control Technology (SCT) has been providing specialist geotechnical consultancy and instrumentation services for almost 30 years. Operating both in Australia and globally, the company has built a reputation for technically robust, practical solutions to difficult mining and tunnelling problems.

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ully owned by its staff, SCT is in a unique position to build and develop capability in house using a specialist team of geotechnical engineers, field personnel and instrumentation technicians.

SCT has worked in a wide range of coal, metal and civil operations globally – and understand the particular challenges of working in weak, highly stressed ground.

We work from a first principles approach to define the unique strata control hazards and design solutions for each project.

SCT invest heavily in research and development and continue to refine and develop our capabilities to reflect the challenges faced in mining and civil operations.

SCT Operations team members have recently been a part of an award-winning project for the Kaikoura earthquake recovery project in New Zealand.

The Kaikoura earthquake recovery project run by the North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery (NCTIR) alliance in New Zealand has won the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) People’s Choice Award 2018.

The devastating 7.8 magnitude Kaikoura Earthquake of 14 November 2016 caused significant damage to the road and rail corridors along the Kaikoura coast and required an immediate engineering response to rebuild infrastructure. The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and KiwiRail came together to form the NCTIR alliance with four of New Zealand’s largest contractors and were tasked with the huge job of rebuilding the road and rail corridors.

SCT Operations was engaged by NCTIR to conduct the geotechnical assessment, design, construction supervision and monitoring of four one-way road tunnels totalling approximately 200m in length.

The unsupported road tunnels had been initially constructed at least 80 years ago in greywacke rock through narrow headlands adjacent the coast.

The tunnels required widening as part of the NCTIR work program to improve clearances for large vehicles and to increase the capacity of the highway.

The design requirement called for a 100yr design life of the structural support elements as well as relatively tight construction time frame to support key road re-opening milestones whilst minimising travel delays to the road users.

For the full insight on this project please read our blog article

Geotechnical And Hydrogeological Instrumentation, Installation And Analysis

SCT design, build and install a range of specialist geotechnical and hydrogeological instrumentation for the mining and civil industries.

Our capability is quite broad and includes 3D overcore stress measurement from surface boreholes and underground workings to undertaking a range of well testing programs including large scale interference testing.

We have specialist teams involved in ground pre-treatment including hydraulic fracturing for block caving and longwall operations.