Design Fault Keeps Southern Star Shut

Engineers working on Melbourne's crippled $100 million Southern Star Observation Wheel have discovered the cracks that shut down the ride only 40 days after it opened were not caused by the state's blistering heatwave but rather a problem in the original design.

The initial finding was presented at a series of meetings held with stakeholders on the ill-fated 40-storey high observation wheel last month and potentially means the structure will have to be reinforced before it is safe to operate again.

It could also push the timetable for fixing the wheel beyond the original forecast of six months, placing further strain on the business owners who set up next to the tourist site in Docklands.

Independent engineers who are investigating the structure as well as engineers flown out from Japan by the wheel's designer, Sanoyas Hishino Meisho, have ruled out heat as a factor in creating as many as 14 cracks in the steel.

Representatives of the Japanese firm that designed the wheel concurred in a meeting that a weakness within the structure itself was to blame.

Both teams of engineers have ruled out at this stage any problem with the raw materials used in the wheel's 1,500-tonne structure, their manufacture or ultimate construction by on-site workers.

It was originally assumed that Melbourne's string of 40-plus degree days at the end of January had caused some bracing parts to buckle.

Fred Maybury, Chairman of wheel operator the Southern Star Management Group, issued a statement in late January that said "the excessive heat we've had in Melbourne caused one of the members to buckle and that's created some cracking in the bracing structure up towards the hub."

A final report will be presented to the owners and managers of the wheel, global financial house ING Real Estate, over the next month.

11th November 2008 - MELBOURNE’S NEWEST LANDMARK TO OPEN