Webstar
Webstar
Project
Industrial
Location
114 Swanson Road
Henderson
Client
Blue Star Group (NZ) Ltd
Value
$700k
Period
2 Months
Consultants
Engineers /
MSC Consulting Group
Coffey
For this project, Haydn & Rollett was tasked with creating a new foundation for a major Auckland-based printing facility to accommodate an additional press. The fact that it was undertaken during the first Covid-19 lockdown meant it was always going to involve unfamiliar measures, particularly given the need to enable the client’s printing operation to continue throughout all phases of construction and to allow its staff to safely maintain their own ‘bubble’. Social distancing was practised onsite, and a dust suppression system was used to protect the inner workings of the existing printing machinery.
Heavy industrial printing presses need highly stable foundations to print large volumes at speed. Prior to the start of the project, geotech investigations had revealed that the bedrock for the new press’s site was very deep. After cutting through the existing slab and excavating foundations, the project team had to drive 42 steel piles to a depth of 22 metres. A substantial amount of steel reinforcing was then laid, and a new concrete slab poured in stages.
Despite these complications, the job was completed in two months, a month ahead of schedule and perfectly timed for the release from quarantine of the overseas team contracted to install the new machinery.