22 | T T Karen Phelps Many facets to complex extension Watts & Hughes Construction REGIONAL EMPOWERING VISIONS GROWING BRANDS Build a strong presence with your local provider of full service sign and advertising products. 03 377 6666 christchurch@speedysigns.co.nz Christchurch Central BCP BARTLETT CONCRETE CEMENTING OUR PLACE IN CANTERBURY www.bcpltd.co.nz 03 359 4962 quotes@bcpltd.co.nz Residential / commercial concrete projects Excavations & siteworks Concrete pumping & placing Decorative concrete, driveways & landscaping A significant extension to Woolworths’ Christchurch regional distribution centre is well underway, with the first of three construction stages now complete. Located at the corner of Shands and Halswell Junction roads in Hornby, the project is being undertaken by Watts & Hughes Construction, secured through a closed tender process, with work beginning on-site in May 2025. Watts & Hughes Construction project manager, Josh Stavropoulos, says the project has required extensive forward planning, careful management and good communication with all stakeholders as the distribution centres supplies all the South Island Woolworths and Fresh Choice supermarkets, making it an important hub for food distribution. Stage 1 delivered a 16,500sqm extension to the distribution centre, along with a new dispatch office, gatehouse and entry house, and an extension and full renovation of the existing office block. “One of the earliest challenges involved 135 metres of existing external precast wall, standing10 metres high along one side of the live warehouse,” says Josh. “We had to work in with live operations in the existing warehouse and build a temporary wall directly in front of the section to be removed before any demolition could begin. Working around Woolworths’ own Health & Safety requirements, as well as the Watts & Hughes Construction requirements, added further complexity, with tight timelines and only a narrow overnight window in which to work for certain parts of the project. “The centre is shut for just five hours, from midnight to 5am, so any work that posed too much disruption to operations could not be carried out during operating hours and had to be done then.” Once the temporary wall was in place, demolition began on the original precast panels, with live Woolworths operations continuing just two metres away. The team devised a specific methodology for the task, cutting the full-height 10-metre panels in half using wet-cutting techniques T T to page 24 to control dust, with a remote-controlled saw operated by the demolition contractor. Holes were cored through the upper sections first, a crane hooked through and each piece cut and lifted clear. “We allowed a month to take it down and did it in three weeks,” says Josh. With the wall removed, foundation works could progress in this area, running alongside foundation work for the rest of the extension. The structural steel erection for the extension, comprising just over 1100 tonnes, took roughly three months from start to finish.
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