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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/18/impossible-made-perfect-builders-of-the-sydney-opera-house-look-back-in-wonder>
"The construction of the Sydney Opera House was a famously fraught saga, but as
the city’s landmark turns 50, former workers remember a quite different
atmosphere on the site itself.
Michael Elfick, who was then a surveyor in his early 20s, says safety
precautions were minimal.
“The people were so relaxed,” Elfick says. “You just wandered over the shells
as you needed to, high in the sky.”
On the tight parcel of land, less than 2 hectares, three tower cranes would
swing 10-tonne lumps of concrete through the air.
“Then people had to actually place that, to an eighth of an inch,” Elfick says.
“So they are standing on top of the things, guiding them into an exact
position.”
The crane drivers had difficulty seeing over the rising shells, with
potentially disastrous consequences.
“The Opera House was very fortunate that nobody got killed,” Elfick says."
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*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
