Review of prefabrication and volumetric mining structures: Current practice, challenges, and future prospects

Prefabricated construction continues to gain popularity in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Prefabrication developed into non-volumetric assembly and then into volumetric construction. Whilst volumetric construction reduces project risk by providing a safer, certain, and sust...

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Main Authors: Kreppold, Paul, Lacey, Andrew, Hao, Hong, Chen, Wensu
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier 2025
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97947
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author Kreppold, Paul
Lacey, Andrew
Hao, Hong
Chen, Wensu
author_facet Kreppold, Paul
Lacey, Andrew
Hao, Hong
Chen, Wensu
author_sort Kreppold, Paul
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Prefabricated construction continues to gain popularity in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Prefabrication developed into non-volumetric assembly and then into volumetric construction. Whilst volumetric construction reduces project risk by providing a safer, certain, and sustainable construction approach, it is not without its challenges, specifically the ability to transport oversized volumetric structures to remote Australian locations. It is yet to be accepted as a mainstream construction practice. While the evolution of volumetric construction continues to be a source of interest, more literature on structural volumetric construction within the mining sector is desired. This paper reviews various terminology used in industry and suggests unified termi nology for industry participants, including those in the mining sector. The review considers the benefits of prefabricated structures at remote locations in Australia in terms of safety, productivity, quality schedule, cost and sustainability. The perceived challenges are reviewed in terms of planning, sea transportation and road transportation. The paper concludes by proposing an alternative to overcome the challenges and the construction requirements that require consideration.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:49:37Z
publishDate 2025
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-979472025-07-16T03:34:02Z Review of prefabrication and volumetric mining structures: Current practice, challenges, and future prospects Kreppold, Paul Lacey, Andrew Hao, Hong Chen, Wensu Prefabricated construction continues to gain popularity in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Prefabrication developed into non-volumetric assembly and then into volumetric construction. Whilst volumetric construction reduces project risk by providing a safer, certain, and sustainable construction approach, it is not without its challenges, specifically the ability to transport oversized volumetric structures to remote Australian locations. It is yet to be accepted as a mainstream construction practice. While the evolution of volumetric construction continues to be a source of interest, more literature on structural volumetric construction within the mining sector is desired. This paper reviews various terminology used in industry and suggests unified termi nology for industry participants, including those in the mining sector. The review considers the benefits of prefabricated structures at remote locations in Australia in terms of safety, productivity, quality schedule, cost and sustainability. The perceived challenges are reviewed in terms of planning, sea transportation and road transportation. The paper concludes by proposing an alternative to overcome the challenges and the construction requirements that require consideration. 2025 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97947 10.1016/j.istruc.2025.109506 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Elsevier fulltext
spellingShingle Kreppold, Paul
Lacey, Andrew
Hao, Hong
Chen, Wensu
Review of prefabrication and volumetric mining structures: Current practice, challenges, and future prospects
title Review of prefabrication and volumetric mining structures: Current practice, challenges, and future prospects
title_full Review of prefabrication and volumetric mining structures: Current practice, challenges, and future prospects
title_fullStr Review of prefabrication and volumetric mining structures: Current practice, challenges, and future prospects
title_full_unstemmed Review of prefabrication and volumetric mining structures: Current practice, challenges, and future prospects
title_short Review of prefabrication and volumetric mining structures: Current practice, challenges, and future prospects
title_sort review of prefabrication and volumetric mining structures: current practice, challenges, and future prospects
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/97947