74 | DEVELOPMENT Scott Construction - Haven Road Apartments Virginia Wight Five decades of experience shows Scott Construction’s is currently working on the stunning Haven Road Apartments in Nelson. Scott Construction has been active in the building industry in Nelson since 1970, and is one of the largest construction companies in the top of the South Island employing over 130 people. They work across all aspects of construction including civil and commercial construction; primary industries such as vineyards, seafood, forestry and so on; and residential architectural homes, town houses and commercial apartment buildings, commercial in this sense is about scale, a development tall enough to need cranes and multi-storey techniques in its construction for example, such as one of Scott Construction’s current design and build projects at 71 Haven Road, the Haven Road Apartments. Of the over 130 employees over 30% are in some form of training including apprenticeships, leadership, management training or plant operations. For Scott Construction it’s a way of giving back to the industry and they take it seriously enough to have recently employed Steve McIntyre as their full-time in-house training manager, straight from 20 years at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. “Staff and Development Training Manager is his formal title,” explains Robert Glenny, one of Scott’s Project Management team. “With the staff numbers that we’ve got there’s significant value in providing high quality training both for the benefit to the clients and the quality of the buildings we offer, but also staff retention and providing opportunities for career advancement.” It’s the latest example of how Scott Construction take care of their own, and the loyalty that inspires is clear, with site managers and foremen who’ve been with the company for 20 or even 30 years, and all the advantages of strong relationships that brings with it. The team involved in the delivery of the multi-million dollar Haven Road Apartments also benefits from having worked together before. It’s the second design and build partnership between Scott Construction and their client VIP Developments who together successfully developed Ocean View Apartments in nearby Tahunanui. Also involved was architect Aaron Walton of Aaron Walton Architecture and Design who, together with RM Designs in Christchurch and EngCo Engineers, is part of the Haven Road Apartments team. “QS Luke Benton was on that job as well so it’s a lot of the same team, with a new Site Manager, Tim Pitcaithly, so we’re building on that success and those positive relationships and bringing them to Haven Road,” says Robert. “It’s a major undertaking for the Nelson region so having the positive relationships we’ve also got with the sub-contractors is important too. It’ll be the tallest CLT (Cross Laminated Building) in the South Island when we’re done.” CLT is a low carbon, environmentally friendly, light-weight, pre-fabricated wood panel system that is becoming increasingly popular in builds across the country, and for good reason. “There’s an element of carbon sequestration that happens when you use solid timber. You’re locking up carbon inside a product that has drawn CO2 while it’s growing and then it stays in there for the life of the building, rather than burning a whole lot of fossil fuel to produce cement and make concrete,” says Robert. Once completed the five-storey high building will have a mix of one and two bedroom apartments on the lower four floors with three premium penthouses occupying the fifth, for 31 high end apartments in total. The CLT will be left exposed in the building’s common spaces, while the apartments will enjoy high spec fit-outs including tiled bathrooms and engineered wood-flooring leading across to balconies with views across the CBD and out towards the ocean. Scott Construction are excited for the opportunities the CLT structure should afford in speed and ease of construction. Having been cut to measure with a high degree of precision it arrives on site ready to be clipped together, possibly saving up to a third of the time a standard concrete construction says Robert cautiously. “You don’t have the mess of intermediate concrete floor pours, with multiple trades involved for the steel reinforcing and concrete pumping and so on. Nor do you wait for the concrete to cure before you start the next level. You’ve got one product from level one to level five, placing your timber floors then your timber walls, assembled with standard carpentry tools by qualified carpenters,” explains Robert. To achieve that degree of simplicity on site brings its own unique challenges: the detail and precision of the drawings is of paramount importance and must be correct from the start, a piece that’s the wrong size or shape is not an easy fix. It’s more important to keep everything dry than it would be for concrete and given the size of some of the panels access has to be carefully thought through. timmillerplumbing.co.nz 0800 PLUMBING merv@timmillerplumbing.co.nz 03 547 4532 Proud suppliers of Building materials to Scott Construction Ltd
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