In October 2001, the Sydney Harbor Bridge obtained funding to re-paint the two approach spans, approximately 1,000,000 ft² of blasting and painting. Traditionally GMA SpeedBlast Garnet was used on the bridge. However, industry experts convinced the project team that steel grit would be better.

The project required the removal of lead paint. The team needed a very good quality containment system and good access to the ideal equipment for steel grit. After the additional purchase of an $800,000 steel grit recycler, the project commenced.

Initially it went well. However, there were a few things we found that surprised us. We could only get 15-20 recycles from Steel Grit – much less than the 50-200 which we had been promised. Also we were spending 4x the amount of time cleaning up than what we had allowed for. This narrowed down that we needed 20 lbs per ft² for Steel Grit, but only 4 lbs per ft₂ with Garnet.

After around 6 months, the project cost was significantly over budget. The blasting cost per ft^₂ was averaging out to $4.00 – $5.00/ft. Additionally, we were experiencing significant downtime due to moisture leaking through the containment which caused the steel grit to rust and clump. We decided to change back to GMA SpeedBlast Garnet.

By switching back to garnet, cleanup time was reduced from four hours to under one hour. We could also obtain a white metal blast much faster. After a few months, we calculated our total blasting costs had reduced back within budget to around $2.50/ft.

Since 2003 we have strictly used GMA SpeedBlast Garnet on the Sydney Harbor Bridge for all coating removal and surface blasting, with great success.