900-tonne crane lifts Super T bridge beam on 14-day-old lightweight concrete in Big Build engineering feat
Melbourne, VIC —On Victoria's Eastern Freeway Burke to Tram Alliance (EBTA) project, the delivery team recently made a decision that most concrete engineers would find counterintuitive. They parked a 900-tonne crane on a section of lightweight cellular concrete that had cured for just 14 days, and used it to lift a 70-tonne Super T bridge beam into position.
The material was Ecofil 30, a proprietary lightweight cellular concrete supplied by family-owned Victorian civil contractor Eifers Civil Pty Ltd. It weighs approximately one-fifth of conventional concrete, with a target density of around 480 kg/m³ and a specified 28-day compressive strength of 0.75 MPa. Placing a load of that magnitude on that material, at half its design curing period, required serious confidence in both the mix design and the production quality control.
"This project shows what's possible when you combine the right material, the right production model, and a client willing to trust the engineering," said Matt Eifermann, Eifers' General Manager. "Ecofil is genuinely changing what's possible in civil construction."
Confidence earned through delivery
That confidence was earned across more than 46,582 cubic metres of Ecofil 30 placed at 15 pour locations along the Eastern Freeway corridor. Across the project, Eifers recorded:
●Zero non-conformance reports across more than 100 NATA-accredited compressive strength tests
●Consistent performance between 147 and 213 per cent of the 0.75 MPa specification minimum, averaging approximately 1.2 MPa at 28 days
●Zero rework across all lightweight fill applications
●Zero lost-time injuries, medical treatment injuries or notifiable safety incidents
The compressive strength testing was performed by NATA-accredited laboratory partner Coffey Testing under AS 1012.9, with density verification per AS 1012.12.1.
The production capability
Ecofil is Eifers' proprietary lightweight cellular concrete, produced by injecting stable, pre-formed foam into cement slurry. On EBTA, it was placed above existing culvert structures, behind retaining walls, around bridge interfaces, and over sensitive services where reducing dead load and protecting existing infrastructure were critical requirements.
The material is manufactured on site using Eifers' custom-built CC200 Cellular Concrete Mobile Batching Plant, the only production unit of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The CC200 integrates cement storage, dual slurry mixing, dual foam generation, and dual concrete pumps in a single mobile configuration, capable of producing up to 150 cubic metres per hour with real-time PLC-controlled adjustment.
The on-site production model eliminates reliance on external batch plants and reduces truck movements by approximately 90 per cent versus conventional ready-mix supply. Across the EBTA scope, this reduced project trucking from a notional 2,167 agitator truck deliveries to just 232 cement deliveries, with corresponding reductions of approximately 75 per cent in fuel use and 65 per cent in transport emissions. Combined with the use of Adbri EVOCEM (Type GL) cement in place of conventional Type GP cement, the project delivered an estimated 4,263 tonnes of avoided CO₂-e emissions across the 46,582 cubic metres supplied.
The mix design
The Ecofil 30 mix design deployed on EBTA was developed by Glen Carson, Adbri's National Product Manager for Cementitious and Aggregate Materials, working with Eifers' engineering team. The mix was optimised for binder efficiency, achieving target strength and durability requirements at the lowest practical binder content, while remaining within conventional normal-weight cellular concrete parameters. The Global Warming Potential calculation was verified by Zoe Schmidt at Hy- Tec.
Recognition at the CCF Victoria Earth Awards
The work was recognised on Friday 21 August at the 2026 CCF Victoria Earth Awards ceremony at Metropolis Southbank, where Eifers was announced as the Winner in the Project Value Category of $5M to $10M. Eifers was contracted by the EBTA alliance (a joint venture of Laing O'Rourke Australia and Symal Infrastructure, acting for Major Road Projects Victoria, with WSP and Arcadis as design partners) to deliver the Supply and Installation of Lightweight Concrete Fill package on the Eastern Freeway Upgrades (Burke to Tram).
"This award reflects the work of everyone on the Eifers team who contributed to EBTA, from engineering, production and quality through to the crews delivering pours across the corridor every day," said Mr Eifermann. "It also reflects the trust and collaboration of the EBTA alliance team, who backed our approach from the start."
As a state category winner, Eifers automatically progresses as an eligible finalist to the National Earth Awards, to be held in Canberra on Friday 27 November 2026.
About Eifers
Founded in 2003 by the Eifermann family in Epping, Victoria, Eifers is a family-owned Australian civil construction specialist focused on time-critical concrete technologies including Ecofil lightweight cellular concrete, High Early Strength Concrete, and Fastpatch polymer repair systems. Eifers operates a triple-certified Integrated Management System (ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001) and is pre-qualified by VicRoads to R3, B2 and F5 categories.