The Victorian Heart Hospital, located on the Monash University Clayton Campus in Clayton, Victoria is Australia’s first state-of-the-art, specialist cardiac hospital, providing innovative, holistic, and patient-centred care, as well as world-leading research and education. This hospital will have the capacity to provide up to 2,160 cardiac surgeries per year.

The situation

With a budgeted $564 million towards the project, the concept designs for the Victorian Heart Hospital were completed in May 2018, with major construction works commencing in November 2019.

With the main facade completed in October 2021, the Victorian Heart Hospital welcomed its first patients in February 2023 and in August 2023 this impressive structure won an Inde Award for the best design in the Health and Wellbeing space.

Solution

Altitude Facade Access was appointed to do the design specifications for the height safety equipment required on the entire project. This is always welcome news as it means the Kattsafe products and systems installed would not be compromised by being mixed with products supplied by alternative suppliers. Mixing and matching products and systems is always a risk from a compliance aspect, which is so critical for the working at height sector. With Kattsafe’s constant endeavour to ‘save lives’, we are always vigilant that there are never any shortcuts taken in regard to fall protection and height safety.

Curved rigid rail

Our Approved Installer, APS Industrial Services, then carried out the complex installation.

The curved rigid rail on the Victorian Heart Hospital is nothing short of a masterpiece. The intricate facade required a flexible system that could be shaped to follow the many twists and turns but also one that would have a low aesthetic impact on the entire building design.

Rigid rail

Kattsafe was also able to provide a product with increased spans between supports and with the capacity to lift glass. More and more buildings now feature large expanses of glass on their facades and the replacement of this has proved expensive and difficult. The traditional method was the use of BMUs, which are very expensive to install and virtually impossible to retrofit. They are also very costly to maintain.

Height safety

"Employing a system that had the dual purpose of not only providing rope access for maintenance but also the ability to be used for glass replacement was a win-win for the building owner", Barry Voss, Kattsafe Sales Manager, stated.

Whilst rewarding, this project was a challenge due to the curved rigid rail installed. This necessitated many design revisions, collaboration and careful attention to detail, particularly with the radiuses that were required.

Height safety

Other products installed included concrete mount anchors, rung ladders, guardrails, walkways and static lines, which now provide user-friendly fall protection and roof access for maintenance personnel.

Thanks to APS Industrial Services, one of Kattsafe’s valued installers, this project exceeded all expectations.

Project details

Project: Victorian Heart Hospital, Clayton VIC

Solutions: Rope Access, General Access, Fall Arrest, Fall Protection, Rigid Rails, Guardrails and Walkways, Anchor Points, Static Lines

Installer: APS Industrial Services

Industry: Health

Architecture & Design Team

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Kattsafe

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