| 17 Proudly supporting Active Refrigeration Southern QA’s reputation for providing the very best inspection and quality assurance services has seen it work on some of New Zealand’s most high profile projects including currently the new Dunedin Hospital. The state of the art, fit for purpose facility is currently the largest ever health infrastructure investment in New Zealand and Southern QA has been tasked with offering its specialised consulting services in protective coatings and intumescent fireproofing. Southern QA’s coatings inspection services include third party inspections to establish conformance of surface preparation and coating application to the design specifications. Inspection and testing are conducted in Experience & expertise key at Southern QA accordance with the relevant project specifications including the requirements, methodologies and test standards as prescribed by the industry standards AS/NZS 2312 and AS/NZS 5131. Southern QA’s coatings manager René Hill says the company’s involvement in the in-shop coatings inspections for the primary steel at the steel fabricator is soon to finish as steel fabrication is due for completion in May 2024. Coating compliance inspections will then be focused on the in-shop coatings inspections for the seismic steel and on-site inspections of the site applied intumescent fireproofing, planned for completion in April 2025. She notes the construction environment in Dunedin during winter, being humid and cold can be challenging to the on-site application of intumescent coatings. Condition monitoring will be a key focus during inspections. A privately owned Christchurch headquartered business, with branches in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Invercargill, Southern QA was founded in 1987. René says the team of 40 are key to the company’s success and ability to deliver on large and prominent projects such as Dunedin Hospital. “We are constantly upskilling staff by broadening their experience, engaging in formal training, and upgrading qualifications and certifications,” she says. This works alongside new technologies with a policy of upgrading equipment to take advantage of efficiencies and improvements. René says both these factors have helped position the company at the forefront of its field and it now has technicians, inspectors, QA specialists, and support staff spread across New Zealand. “We’re a company that punches well above our weight,” she says. “We are South Island founded and operate at an international level including conducting compliance audits of fabricators in overseas markets. We are proud we can offer that level of service to the local market in New Zealand on projects such as Dunedin Hospital.” Southern QA is one of the few companies in New Zealand to have IANZ accreditation as well as ILAC endorsement. It is a member of the NZ Non-Destructive Testing Association, American Welding Society, NZ Institute of Welding, Standards Association of NZ and Heavy Engineering Research Association. Services also include other inspection services, welding consultancy, NDT services (including radiographic, ultrasonic, magnetic particle, penetrant, eddy current and visual inspection) and borescope. Over the years Southern QA has worked on a variety of significant projects. Projects in the past decade, to name but a few, include Alexander Park in Auckland, Tekapo footbridge, Scott Base fuel pipeline and the Deloitte building in Christchurch. It has been appointed compliance auditor for the Christchurch multi use arena Te Kaha, currently under construction. Proudly s pporting Workforce Central & Southbas Construction
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