THE first sod has been turned at the new multi-user facility being developed by the Port Authority of New South Wales at Glebe Island.

“This first sod turning marks an important step for Port Authority’s multi-user facility which will facilitate the shipping of depleted sand to help the concrete supply chain these projects require,” the Port Authority said in a statement.

When complete, the facility will enable materials like sand and rock aggregate to be brought to Sydney via sea. The materials will be unloaded, stored, and put into trucks within the facility, and then distributed to concrete batching plants and supplied to major infrastructure projects around the city.

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“Bringing these materials in by sea is the most sustainable way of getting them to where they need to be – each ship visiting the facility will replace between 1,100-1,500 truckloads of materials that would have otherwise come in by road,” the Port Authority said.

The 15,000-square-metre facility (equivalent to around five tennis courts wide and 20-metres high) will be constructed using structural steel frames, colorbond cladding, a precast concrete perimeter wall and concrete pile footing.

Construction is expected to take about twelve months, weather permitting, with anticipated completion by mid-2021.