Edgar Centre strengthening

Naylor Love has a long history with the Edgar Centre, having converted the 1970’s era woolstore into a sports centre in 1996, and returning over the years to add extensions. Subsidence due to the waterfront location and modern seismic building codes saw us back at the Edgar Centre in 2018, starting a six-month ECI process to consult on buildability and sequencing before starting work on-site in February the following year.

We broke the significant strengthening project into three main stages, often breaking the main stages down even further to ensure that areas could stay open throughout. This meant working on four courts at a time in the 12,000m² area, stopping work each day at 2pm to vacuum and magnetically sweep in time for the 3pm influx for school sports. We prefabricated much of the steel bracing installed in the woolstore offsite, bolting it together rather than welding it to protect both the sports surface and building users from sparks and fumes.

We also staged the work carefully in the Administration area, isolating the stair connections, installing new ground foundations and strengthening columns around room bookings in the function centre.

The third and final stage was the 3,500m² MoreFM Arena, Dunedin’s largest indoor sports venue. The entire area needed to be closed off to complete the works, so we were working to an immovable deadline due to forward bookings. We installed a vast birdcage scaffold to reach the 14-metre-high ceiling, fully 3D modelling the suspended sports floor before protecting it from the 120 tonne weight with geotextile and a thick layer of plywood distributed across an LVL beam grid. All of the welding required to install the SHS struts, DonoBracing and seismic restraint to the services was completed on site in the Arena due to the sheer scale of the steel required and to expedite the programme, as it gave all trades easy access to the entire area.

Our involvement from the earliest conceptual stages of this project and our determination to accommodate Dunedin’s indoor sports fraternity ensured that the project was completed on time with minimal impact to the community. The Edgar Centre is back in business as an essential part of Dunedin’s sporting infrastructure.