Business South November 2021

| 81 Christchurch: Farrell Construction BUILDING Grand renovation, grand location T Richard Loader The stylish new Lexus building has now been handed over to the client. E ngaged in 2018 to undertake major structural/seismic strengthening of the building on the corner of St Asaph and Montreal Streets owned by the Donnithorne family, Farrell Construction is now in the project’s latter stages, with final completion expected early 2022. Part of the building was occupied by VFL – Vehicle Finance and Leasing, also owned by the Donnithorne family. The project has been undertaken in various stages, based upon areas of the building be- coming available as tenancies expired. Structural strengthening on the northern portion of the building was completed in 2018, with the final and largest section of the project commencing February this year. “VFL moved out of the western portion of the building in January and we moved on site in February,” says Andrew Poutney, Opera- tions Manager for Farrell Group. “Our scope was to demolish an existing office to enable the structural strengthening work to be undertaken, and to change the use of that part of the building,” says Andrew. “The area that was occupied by VFL has now been split into two distinct areas, with Lexus occupying the Montreal side. VFL will occupy the central portion.” The project required the installation of rein- forced masonry share walls and new founda- tions on the northern, southern, western and eastern elevations. The roof trusses were strengthened with SHS (square hollow section) structural steel. “The structural steel installation has gone particularly well. We did a point cloud survey of the internal building. “A scanner creates a 3D model of the inter- nal building so that we can get dimensional accuracy for all the structural steel require- ments. Millimetre accuracy enabled the steel to be ordered, manufactured and brought to site with confidence that it would ft.” Strengthening of the roof was required, which necessitated the removal of asbestos roof lining, and the installation of a new insu- lated roof covering. Large shop front windows were installed the full perimeter of the western part of the build- ing and clerestory windows installed above eye level that run east to west just below the saw tooth roofline. An existing network of basements under the building had to backfilled and a new con- crete finished floor put in. The Lexus tenancy has now been handed over and Farrell Construction will start back on site November the 1st to complete the final stage that will be occupied by VFL. Andrew says the project’s primary challenge was operating on St Asaph Street close to a public footpath and getting the road closed down for health and safety purposes. “We engaged a traffic management compa- ny to work with the Christchurch City Council in respect to applications and ensure we were above board with what we were doing. “That traffic company was also responsible for traffic control. “We split the footpath to enable pedestrian traffic to continue past the scaffold but also provided overhead protection.” Over the years Farrell Construction has been engaged in numerous structural strengthening projects around Christchurch. In this time the company has amassed a sig- nificant amount of experience and specialist expertise in doing this work. “Every project has its own nuances but a lot of the experience we have gained is highly transferable and can be adapted to each individual project.” Mobile: +64 21 915 090 | Phone: +64 3 374 3266 10a Vulcan Place | Middleton | Christchurch | New Zealand www.farrellconstruction.co.nz innovationzelectrical.co.nz Like us Commercial Residential Solar Data Heat Pumps