Rooftop chiller replacement, Brisbane CBD
Two 580 kg chiller modules swapped on a 14-storey plant deck inside a single Sunday window, with no street closure.
PA-2614 · Turbot Street, Brisbane CBD · 2025-03-16

The constraint
Why this lift needed a helicopter
The plant deck sat 14 storeys up behind a parapet, set back 9 m from the building line.
The only crane position was a two-lane arterial requiring a full weekend closure and traffic management.
Building management could not surrender tenant access on a weekday, and the chillers were already failing.
The lift
How it was flown
- Load weight
- 580 kg
- Aircraft
- AS350
- Line length
- 45 m
- Crew
- 6
- Exclusion zone
- 60 m
- Lift cycles
- 4
- Flew from Archerfield with a 45 m long line and remote hook, staging the replacement units on a closed carpark deck two blocks north.
- Old units were cut free, rigged and flown out first so the deck was clear before the new plant arrived.
- Riggers on the roof worked inside a marked 60 m exclusion zone under a dedicated ground controller on a discrete frequency.
- Four cycles total: two out, two in, with the deck signed off before the CBD reopened on Monday.
The numbers
Time, cost and disruption
- Helicopter time on site
- 20 min
- Flight time
- 0.8 hrs
- Crane alternative
- 3 days · $41,500 – $55,500
- Road closures
- 0
On site
Photos
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