The new front gates installed back in 2016 as part of the Pitt St fencing upgrade have suffered problems due to the gateposts not being properly installed; they were simply bolted to the existing concrete.
As many museum volunteers have subsequently discovered, these fixings simply were not strong enough to hold the considerable weight of the new gates and they ‘dropped’ making them difficult to open and close.
June 2018
Over the last few weeks our Infrastructure Manager marked out some new post holes and over several weeks new 700mm deep holes were dug, a ‘reo-cage with threaded rods welded up, and then over a couple of days and many bags of premix high strength concrete, the foundations for the gate posts cast. These foundations should NOT move.
When all the preparations are done, the gates will be lifted with the forklift and dropped onto the new foundations.
February 2024
After a few years of delay due to other priorities, contractors from Coleman’s Fencing arrived in early February to install the new posts to enable the transfer of the front gates to the previously installed foundations. The opportunity is also being taken to extend the new fence line to the highway boundary of the museum as far as the first overhead pole past the main entrance.
Work continued a few days later with the new fence line installed and front gates relocated to the new footings. Only the pedestrian gate requires relocation before the job is completed.
Project Complete!
Rectification works to our front gates are now complete. We shouldn’t have any further troubles with them in the future.
