Laing O’Rourke

Founded in the United Kingdom, Laing O’Rourke is a $6bn international operation with 70 years of involvement in Australian construction and infrastructure, including two decades under the Laing O’Rourke banner.

The business delivers projects as diverse as the environments in which they are built, from major rail and road transport infrastructure projects, through to high security military bases and landmark buildings at the transport interface.

Laing O’Rourke owns two vertically integrated business units: Rail Operations, our national business unit focused on delivering complex rail infrastructure projects along with maintenance and renewal projects, and Select Plant, Australia’s fourth largest plant and equipment hire company.

Laing O’Rourke was awarded the prestigious Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation in 2020, 2022 and 2024.  We know the right culture combined with purposeful technology will help us meet demand and deliver certainty for our clients.

LOR presentation will be given by Chris Martin – Project Engineer within LOR Hunter Valley Rail Operations:

Chris Martin joined Laing O’Rourke in 2019 as an undergraduate engineer while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in construction management. Chris has progressed to the role of Project Engineer in the Hunter Valley Rail Operations team, and has worked across numerous complex rail projects in this time including the Mount Owen Departure Road Re-Sleepering Project, Mount Owen Subsidence Longwall Project, Glencore Ravensorth TLO Upgrade, and Malabar Rail Loop Refurbishment, to name just a few. In 2022, Chris began a Diploma of Engineering Infrastructure at the University of Tasmania, to further build his knowledge in the infrastructure sector.

Presentation: The management of subsidence for the Mt Owen Railway.

In 2022, Laing O’Rourke Rail Operations collaborated with Glencore on LW17 of the Mt. Owen Railway, which supports operations at Mt. Owen Glendell and is located above the Integra Underground Mine. Mining-induced subsidence affects rail stress, posing risks of rail buckling from compressive strain and high temperatures or breakage from tensile strain and low temperatures.

To mitigate these risks, a technical team was established in 2004 to develop monitoring and management strategies for the railway and its infrastructure, addressing anticipated subsidence effects. Monitoring includes ground survey lines near the railway, strain and temperature sensors on the rails, visual inspections, and a track geometry trolley. The project’s success was formally documented and presented to the Mine Subsidence Technological Society in May 2022.

During active subsidence, a Technical Committee reviews the monitoring data and based on their recommendations, performs track adjustments by cutting rails and adding or removing steel to manage rail stress. Maintenance is conducted between train operations and occurs several times during each longwall mining cycle. So far, eleven longwalls have been mined under or near the railway without compromising structural integrity, serviceability, or safety. These strategies will continue for future mining beneath the railway.

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