Buller George Turkington - Newsletter - May 2001

Tuesday, May 1, 2001

Welcome to the first edition of the Buller George Turkington newsletter. Why a newsletter you may ask - as if you didn't already get enough items to read! We aim to keep you informed about our diverse work portfolio and the range of services we offer our clients. In this newsletter we take you offshore to the challenges of construction in the Maldives, we introduce you to the issues surrounding construction in the health sector and we demonstrate the need for caution when excavating in and around volcanic Auckland.

On the topical end of the spectrum a brief comment on the demise of Goodall ABL and Hartner. Most people would agree this has been a shock to all participants in the building industry. Regrettably, moves were afoot but real progress, in terms of the core issue of Security of Payment, was too slow to protect contractors before these companies went into liquidation. The Law Commission published an Advisory Report to the Ministry of Commerce in November 1999 titled "Protecting Construction Contractors'. The NZIOB followed up on this paper by organising a Panel Discussion in April 2000. It became clear at that panel discussion that proposed legislation is likely to have significant implications not only to Contractors and Sub-contractors, but also to Property Developers and Consultants. Associate Minister of Commerce Laila Harre announced on2 February 2001 details of proposed new legislation aimed at outlawing widespread payment problems in the construction industry. The legislation is likely to include a Liens provision as a remedy for non-payment. The Construction Contracts Bill is likely to become legislation by the end of the year and will affect us all.

Not before time!

Stuart George
Director

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News

Mainzeal project manager Colin Smith has been working with Buller George Turkington for over two decades and a number of hotels. The most recent project was the Novotel/IbisHotel in Greenlane, adjacent to Ellerslie Race Course. The Ibis wing offers 3 star accommodation and the Novotel offers a 4 star alternative, Built on the same location the hotels, designed by architects Group CDA and run by the Accor Group, includea total of 247 rooms, conference facilities as well as restaurants and bars. Features of the Ibis wing include two suspended floors, concrete shears/walls forming the external shell. The more complex Novotel wing involved 5 suspended floors a combination of structural K braces and moment steel frame plus a proprietary hi-bond floor. Relationship built on solid foundations Buller George Turkington worked closely with panel fabricators to overcome challenges such as the weight of the structure, limitations on panel sizes and weight due to transportation and lifting. The precast panels featured a mix of exposed aggregate and plain painted concrete panels as exterior cladding for the two buildings. Under the Resource Management Act this finish was required to compliment the surrounding area The significant dimensions of some panels meant that aggregate had to be carefully scaled with exactly placed relief joints and detailing to create a more aesthetic appearance. The location for the staged design build project has a reputation for 'tomos' the outcome of Auckland's volcanic past. During construction a significant tomo was unearthed and offered an unwanted but large cave - spot of interest for the boys as pictured.

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3D advantages - one after the other!

Project modelling in 3D, is extensively utilised at Buller George Turkington. For certain projects, the improved presentation format simplifies onsite building.

The 3D package was used for the structural documentation of the Novotel/Ibis Hotel. By sharing co-ordination views at an early stage of the design process other consultants were assisted in the development of their designs and early warning of potential issues were gained. The ability to view details from any angle at any time was also beneficial as complicated joints and corners could be more fully discussed and this enabled more difficult decisions to be made with confidence. Downtime, while waiting for details of required changes to structure, was reduced to a minimum as any modifications required during the construction process could be done quickly and accurately with fully updated documentation provided almost immediately.

A further example of the benefits of 3D is the Westcity shopping centre where the seamless transition from Buller George Turkington's engineering design to drawing through to steel fabrication also enabled incredibly fast construction times to be achieved. For example it was not uncommon for steel to be fabricated and erected in place only 3 - 4 days after the release of drawings from the designer. The engineering drawings were converted into detailed shop drawings for every individual steel component in the building.

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Easing congestion at Auckland Hospital

From hospital beds to hospital carparks, the demand curve seems never ending. Using vertical space to satisfy the hundreds of cars that reflect the streams of employee's, family and friends not to mention patient's accessing hospital facilities has become a worldwide trend and logistics nightmare.

Because of limited site space at the Park Road side, parking congestion has particularly plagued A+. The aim to provide parking for a further 1000 cars was expanded to include rooftop landing facilities for two helicopters.

The project scope meant ensuring safe access from the carpark to the existing Starship Children's Hospital and a new 700 bed hospital due for completion in 2003.

Max Grant architects and the construction company, Mainzeal, provided a design and build concept that addressed design challenges such as the enormity of the undertaking - a building that is 140m long, 35m wide and up to 26m high at the helipad area requiring a total of around 5000cu.m of concrete and 1000 tonnes of structural steel. Two 'stretcher capacity' lifts had to be installed close to the helipad. Sky bridges are on the drawing board for access once the new hospital is completed. At ground level the building is accessed by two entry/exit points as well as a suspended vehicle ramp and three suspended pedestrian ramps.

Buller George Turkington worked with Mainzeal throughout the planning stages and came up with the optimal design solution - a structural steel frame with a lightweight flooring system that met the requirement for a light structure/minimal load due to the poor soil conditions. The earthquake loads are resisted by K brace frames which are founded on clusters of bored concrete piles and extensive piling work was needed prior to laying the foundation.

To prevent cracking in the floors super-plasticised low-slump concrete with shrinkage compensating additives was used.

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Building for the long term

A long-term view of a customer relationship led Hawkins Construction and Buller George Turkington to secure a major contract in the Maldives. It was for the building of Hulhule Island Hotel, an 88 room hotel for Singapore Airlines in joint venture with Maldives Inflight Catering.

The Maldives is a group of islands located off the southwest coast of India. The highest point is only 4 feet above sea level and the islands are like a series of atolls.

Construction in the Maldives is extremely expensive. Faced with transportation issues and the shortage of skilled labour Buller George Turkington recommended redesigning the initial plans to favour pre-cast construction instead of traditional in situ. The three level building required around 20,000 sq.m of poured concrete. The foundations, while below sea level support a ground floor slab that is only 1 meter above the high tide level. The total precast floor area is 6,650m2 and the total precast wall is 13,500 m2. Rheosys concrete was used for this type of construction - this is a high performance concrete system that uses silica fumes to keep the concrete watertight and a retarding plasticizer.

Precast construction is relatively new in the Maldives and previously local projects had been on a much smaller scale explained David Lim from Hawkins Construction. The logistics of the 18 month exercise involved shipping steel from Dubai, aluminium windows from New Zealand, timber windows from Malaysia, sand and aggregate from India, lifts from Sri Lanka, cement from Indonesia and the expertise to put it all together from New Zealand in partnership with the local contractor.

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