There has been a great deal of debate over both the causes of, and the solutions to, the housing crisis in Auckland. With a large portion of the issue attributed to escalating land costs, the solution for the Conrad Property Group, an Auckland property developer, was to go up.
One of their tallest projects, Queens Residence, is a 28 level central city apartment tower housing 320 apartments. With the building completed and building contractor Scarbro Construction handing over the practical completion certificate to Conrad Property Group in mid June, residents were able to move into their new central city apartments.
Peter De Nys, Construction Manager of Scarbro Construction, talks about the development and working in the busy inner city. “This has been a two year journey for our team and I am very happy we have been able to deliver a very good product,” he says.
“We are well versed in the construction of high rise buildings, but 28 levels is the tallest we have been involved in to date,” Peter adds. “Working with suppliers we know and trust is very important in delivering a project like this. We have worked with Firth for many years on all sorts of buildings and projects and we know them well. Their Hamer Street branch is in downtown Auckland, which made a huge difference on the supply to this site. Auckland traffic is only getting worse, but having one of Firth’s branches so close was a real advantage.”
28 storeys may not seem overly tall, but Peter explains that high winds became a factor on many occasions. “Firth were great and very flexible when we were forced to change our requirements at times,” he says. “We often had to change timetables on them or ask for something urgently and they accommodated us - no problem.”
When asked about the mixes used in the construction process Peter says they predominantly used two. “There were some very big shear walls in the basement that were 300 – 500mm wide which we poured insitu,” he says. “For these walls we used a 50MPa, 19mm mix which we pumped. For the rest of the building we skipped in the whole lot and used a 40MPa, 13mm mix that we developed with Firth, originally for the ASB Building, as it produces an extremely good finish. All the interior columns in the lobby have just been painted - the finish is that good. Not having to strap and line them was a huge saving. This mix is a tried and true one for us, and Firth, and we get the results we are after.”
“Both of these mixes had their challenges due to their high MPa and the consistency of slump that was required over a long period of time,” explains Jamie Frew, Regional Operations Manager - Auckland for Firth. “But we worked through this with the engineers, technicians and batching staff and achieved a positive result which we were able to maintain throughout the project.”
“The other thing that we rely on with Firth is their technical expertise,” says Peter. “We ask for, and they supply, a technician for all our major pours. This helps everyone get it right. It works for us and for them. It's a very good, proven relationship that we have and we are extremely happy with it.”
To view a video of the building under construction click here.
Project Details
Construction company: Scarbro
Customer: Conrad Property Group
Architect: Leuschke Group Ltd
Location: 8 Airdale Street, Auckland City
Product: Certified Concrete®
