Modular construction on a Sydney battle-axe block

A battle-axe block is a lot that sits behind other lots, reached from the street by a narrow strip of land called the access handle. They are common across established Sydney suburbs, where a large block was divided to put a second lot behind the first.

For a modular project, the shape of the lot changes one thing above all. The module has to reach a site that a truck cannot simply drive onto.

The lift over the front lot

On many battle-axe blocks the crane stands in the street and lifts each module over the front property onto the base structure behind. The distance between the crane and the set-down point decides the crane size, because a crane's lifting capacity falls as its reach grows.

A load or jib passing over a neighbouring property needs that owner's agreement. Where agreement is not available, the crane has to work from a position that keeps the load inside the site, and that only works if the access handle can take it. Both options are tested in the lift plan, as set out in crane selection and lift planning.

The access handle

The handle is often only a driveway wide. Whether a truck carrying a module can use it depends on its width, the turn in from the street, any slope or bend along it, and the fences, eaves and trees on either side.

The same handle usually carries the services, so the load of a truck or crane over pipes and pits is checked before delivery day rather than discovered on it.

Services along the handle

Water, sewer, power and communications all reach a battle-axe site along the handle. Sewer is the one to check first. Where the land falls away from the street, the connection can need an easement through a neighbouring lot to reach the main.

Authority approvals for these connections take time, which is why they sit early in the programme, as covered in utility connections and authority approvals.

The arrival for residents

For accessible housing, the handle is also the way residents arrive. A long driveway has to work as a level, well-lit path to the front door, with a covered place to stop a car and transfer to a wheelchair.

Where cars and people share the handle, the plan gives each a clear line, so a resident is not walking down the middle of a driveway. Those details are set out in access paths, parking and arrival.

Why the factory helps on a rear lot

A battle-axe site is awkward to build with a full sequence of trades. Every delivery, skip and trade vehicle comes down the handle, often past the house in front, for months.

With most of the building made in the factory while the base structure is built, far fewer vehicles use the handle, and the busiest day is the lift itself.

What to check at feasibility

None of this rules out a battle-axe block. It means the lift, the handle and the services are tested at feasibility, before the design is set around a crane position that turns out not to be available. The wider checklist is in site constraints that decide modular viability.

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