Queensland’s Orana Drill and Blast has just finished up its largest civil construction task to date – undertaking controlled blasts to break up the equivalent of 1.3 million tonnes of earth to clear a rail corridor for the Carmichael Rail Project.

The contractor started work on the Central Queensland project in October last year and completed the assignment this month.

• Check out footage from a blast on the project late last month HERE

Managing director Benjamin Murray said the team had drilled 14,500 holes ranging from 1m to 14m over the course of the job to break up more than 500,000bcm (equal to 1.3 million tonnes).

“We have had strict environmental constraints to adhere to such as ground vibration and air overpressure and have not exceeded the limits set by the project,” he said.

Mr Murray said Orana had run four Atlas Copco drills on the project, with a crew working back-to-back rosters.

“Our site supervisor stayed in Collinsville for the six months months and was on call when required,” he said.

Related: Martinus beefs up Carmichael rail project fleet

Martinus is the principal contractor delivering $340 million worth of civil and track works as part of the rail project.

When complete, about 200km of narrow-gauge rail will link the Bravus Mining and Resources coal mine, about 160km north-west of Clermont, to existing Central Queensland rail infrastructure.

“Martinus was a great company to work for,” Mr Murray said.

“From start to finish Orana and Martinus worked in well together. We adopted an agile approach to successful project execution.”