Four years after the devastating earthquakes that demolished much of Christchurch’s CBD, the construction of large commercial centres in the city is in high gear - including the new ANZ Centre on the site of the former Triangle Centre on High Steet - with main contractor Leighs Construction pulling off one of the largest concrete pours in the rebuild to date when laying the foundations for the new centre in July.
The massive task – a joint venture between Firth, Leigh Construction, JFC Pumps and Conslab – started at 1am on 11 July when concrete was pumped into the area from three points on High St, Cashel St, and Colombo St, at a rate of 178m3 per hour, an average of 6 m3 per load, with the final batch going in at 11.30am. With four concrete plants now in operation in the city, Firth was well equipped to supply the massive 1870 m3 of concrete required for the foundation – all in just over 10 hours!
“We were extremely happy with how the raft slab construction went on the project,” says Brain Phelan, Project Manager for Leighs Construction. “We found the Firth team and their sub-contractors very easy to work with.”
With three main pours on the project of 1117 m3, 836 m3 and 1870 m3 the parties worked out a successful operating plan in advance. Brain explains, “A few weeks prior to each pour all the parties involved - Firth, JFC Pumping, Whites Traffic Management, Conslab (placers) and Leighs management - had a catch up on site to run through the methodology. These pre-planning meetings and discussions were key to the large pours going so smoothly. Pump positions, parking bays for the trucks, road and tram closure requirements were agreed; and supply rates and timings also established. This allowed us to have the plans approved in advance by the City Council. Due to the size of the third pour, one of the concrete pumps was lifted into the basement with a 250 tonne crane, again highlighting the early discussions between all parties to develop the best approach for the task.”
The pours went extremely well, with Leighs receiving very good feedback from the public and from the consultants involved in the project. “Firth's off site planning and logistics around the required deliveries to their batching plants, logistics in controlling over 350 truck movements on the day and their quality control both off and on site is a credit to their teams from the top down,” adds Brian. “The additional Xypex additive which was added to the mix had to be manually measured, recorded and added to the trucks. It was just another hurdle that was easily completed by Firth.”
“There is a lot of construction going on across the city as you can imagine,” says Rob Uffindall, Operations Manager for Firth. “A considerable amount of work went into the organisation of these pours and into the specialty low heat/ low shrink mixes that were developed for the job. These large pours are part of what we do but it is really great to see all the hard work pay off and for them run so smoothly, resulting in a satisfied customer.”
For more information on Certified Concrete® and operations contact us at info@firth.co.nz or 0800 Firth1 (0800 347 841)
Project Details
Customer: Leighs Construction
Pump contractor: JFC Pumping
Placers: Conslab
Location: ANZ Centre site, Christchurch CBD
