Metlifecare Greenwich Gardens is an existing operational residential retirement village. Facilities include a main building, amenities, care facilities and independent living units.
The contract works were for stage 9 & 10 of the development and involved four 5 level buildings, each comprising of a basement car park and 4 levels of apartments (6 apartments per floor), and associated civil/landscape works.
Both separable portions (96 apartments) met our team‘s long term objective of being defect free at practical completion. It was handed over defect free, CCC application submitted, all consultant final inspections closed out and completion documentation issued to Metlifecare.
During the Project Risk Assessment workshop, it was highlighted to the entire site team the major Working at Heights risks associated with the Rib & Infill construction process and it being the biggest risk across the project life cycle.
To find an acceptable solution to mitigate the significant risks identified, the project team carried out a brainstorming activity to assess the safety concerns. The ideas identified as providing the most benefit were then progressed – costings were assessed, ideas were put to Engineers/Architects for assessment and the rib manufacturers (Busck) were approached to see if the ideas generated were feasible and could be accommodated by their manufacturing process.
This proposal needed sign-off from the Client, Architect and Structural Engineers to be acceptable and NZ Strong Directors also needed to approve significant additional funding to allow the team to proceed. None of the parties involved – engineers, architects, rib manufacturers, steel suppliers or the crane company – had seen this process proposed at any time previously. All parties agreed that if the process was successful, it was a much safer process & should be shared with the wider construction industry.
