Wellington Town Hall temporary works
Our Wellington Town Hall redevelopment project continues to deliver interesting challenges. One of the highly visible aspects of the project was always going to be holding up the huge front columns while we demolish their bases, build new foundations and install sliding bearings under them.
We elected to use the existing building foundations and the new screw piles that form part of the permanent foundation as part of the solution. These support a temporary truss that picks up the loads from 12-metre-tall columns and the lintel structure above. We pre-loaded the trusses with some hydraulic jacks before running a wire saw through the column bases.
Right now, we’re in the middle of building the new concrete works under the columns. Next, we drill down each one and apply some vertical stress before we get them back on their new foundations and take the truss away.
Major temporary works like this and very detailed work sequence breakdowns have been a constant feature of the Town Hall redevelopment. It is a complex project, so hats off to our site engineers, build team and the trades that make it all work. They are doing this tricky stuff for us every day and making it look easy.
