Ridges Iron Ore Project
KMG engaged JDSi Consulting Engineers to design a mine access road, camp access road and haul road at its new minesite approximately 150km south of Wyndham in Western Australia’s Kimberley Region.
Further design was commissioned for KMG’s Port Handling Facility in Wyndham which included earthworks, drainage, conveyor embankment and upgrades to existing roads to accommodate quad-roadtrains.
An initial Client requirement was for all culverts at creek crossings to be designed to ensure no overtopping of the road up to the 100 Year rainfall event. A risk analysis was undertaken and identified that using smaller culverts and adequately protected floodways would result in road closures, but these were for short durations and not likely to adversely impact on haulage schedules. This resulted in a significant capital cost saving and provided the Client with assurance their operational risk had been minimised.
Barytes Road in Wyndham is a public road which was identified for use as access to the proposed stockyard and barge loading facility. Upgrading was necessary to accommodate quad-roadtrains and included both horizontal and vertical geometry and seal design to handle drive wheel forces on steep inclines in high temperature conditions. As the road would remain public a review of sight distances, signs and linemarking was undertaken to ensure safe interaction between public and operational vehicles.
Design of the Port Handling Facility earthworks was challenging due to the facility being located on mudflats at the entrance to the Cambridge Gulf. JDSi oversaw a geotechnical investigation and developed a design solution requiring extensive use of geotextiles to support earthworks and control settlement underneath the conveyor embankment and stockpile areas.
