Adelaide Airport - domestic terminal expansion

Due to the frequency of access required to the rooftops of Adelaide's domestic airport for routine maintenance, the designers of the new terminal building decided to specify an 8 mm static line system that would ensure the user would be permanently protected in fall restraint, and remain hands free while performing the work required.

While this was a prudent choice, this left the roofing contractor, Linear Roofing with a potential significant risk: water ingress. Linear Roofing therefore wanted to choose a system that met the specifications of the architect and the owner, as well as avoiding the costly ramifications of repair under its construction warranty provisions.

There is a multitude of roof safety systems available to the market that can achieve this task; however most of these rely on the use of a purlin-mounted anchorage point for connecting both the end and intermediate anchor locations for the system.

While structurally sound, a purlin mounting requires the roof sheet to be drilled into the pan where the water runs, with the size of the hole a factor on whether water will later penetrate under heavy rain conditions.

The waterproofing of these holes is therefore very reliant on the quality of the seal delivered by the silicones and rubber gaskets used on the roof, impacted by large temperature variations on a rooftop of this size. Walking on top of the roof sheet by personnel also causes movement and a potential weakening of the seal.

A better solution and subsequently the one used on this occasion, was the Sala surface-mounted post, with a Sala Sayf-8 horizontal lifeline system.

As its name suggests, the surface-mounted post requires attachment simply to the roof sheeting itself, held in place through the use of a gasket and rivets through the raised profile on the roof sheet. This process is simpler to install and also does not require the positioning of posts immediately above a roof purlin, increasing the flexibility of post location.

The Sala Sayf-8 system was configured with Sayflink shuttles for ease of use and due to the fact they are removable for security and care and maintenance reasons.

Linear Roofing chose accredited installers of the product, Roofsafe T System in Adelaide to complete the installation. "We have enjoyed a great association working with Roof Safe in the past and this project has only demonstrated again how a good team can work together to deliver a project that met the customer's specifications, on time and in full. The guaranteed waterproof integrity of the final installation was of major concern to both ourselves and the client and, to my knowledge, we have not had one problem with the installation during either the commissioning stage or during normal use," said Peter Wegener, managing director of Linear Roofing.

Tony Wright, national sales manager for Roofsafe T System, also recommended the use of the Sala product from the outset. "We use the Sala surface-mounted post on a large number of projects due to its flexibility, ease of use and simply because it ensures we do not get callbacks after the job is handed over. Our reputation remains on the line long after these projects are handed over and the consistent performance of the Sala horizontal systems and surface-mounted posts provide us with a great deal of confidence."