Newlands College redevelopment

The Ministry of Education engaged us as ECI contractor for property developments at Wellington’s Newlands College over the next five years to cater for roll growth. We delivered the first two phases in 2022, demolishing several buildings to replace the staff room and build four new teaching blocks.

Our Preconstruction team reviewed the design documentation as part of our ECI involvement, assessing readiness for consenting and tender, and identifying opportunities for value engineering. We held stakeholder meetings to provide buildability advice to the design team, ensuring that scope and design gaps were identified and resolved. We were able to optimise the design from a construction perspective, improving the methodology, minimising waste, and reducing health and safety risks.

We engaged selected subcontractors early under an open book arrangement, securing the resource and front-footing procurement of long lead items – an approach that paid dividends through Covid-related material and labour shortages. Meticulous planning and early procurement facilitated a speedy build, with the project handed over six weeks early and defect free.

Our site team enjoyed hosting students one day a week for work experience as part of their Gateway programme. The students did a variety of tasks under the guidance of our carpentry team, including helping with the cladding installation.

We prioritised waste minimisation throughout the build, sorting and documenting waste streams. We saved four substantial LVL beams from the demolished buildings, which will be re-used to make furniture for Wellington City Mission’s new community hub.