Ribbon to be cut at construction composites centre on Friday

A new factory for fibre reinforced polymer bridges will open on Friday morning in Wingfield, north of Adelaide, with up to 15 hires expected to be made in the first 12 months of operation.

According to a statement from Sustainable Infrastructure Systems, the opening was the result of a four-year program of technical collaboration with Dutch firm InfraCore, a specialist in fibre-reinforced composite infrastructure.

Fiberglass reinforced polymer (FRP) products patented by InfraCore have been licenced to SIS for the Oceania Region. Significant investments had also been made in research, said SIS, to enable the use of recycled waste elements in the FRP structural decks. 

“We’re a born and bred SA business with a proven track record in sustainable product development and we’re excited about bringing new jobs into SA with a local production facility,” said Managing Director Nick Wotton 

“There are many advantages of low weight FRP Bridges, including minimising on site safety risks as the construction of bridge elements occurs in manufacturing facilities,” said SIS Associate Director of Engineering, Luigi Rossi.  

According to InfraCore, 1,400 structures made using their processes have been installed globally. They describe their technology as offering a standardised and modular approach, “which creates proven and validated cost-effective, prefab composite (FRP) structures that are easily scalable, lightweight, sustainable, maintenance-free, heavy-duty, damage-tolerant and load bearing.”

The first pedestrian bridges for a local commercial customer were finished in April for a contract with Laing O’Rourke for the NSW Government’s ‘More Trains, More Services’ development program.

Image credit: sisau.com.au