hunter civil - business south march 2016
TRANSCRIPT
90 | March 2016 Business SouthCONTRACTING » Hunter Civil
Setting the bar high on rebuild
Retro-fitting base isolators at the Christchurch City Art Gallery proved a technically challenging and difficult project for Hunter Civil.
Kim Newth
Christchurch’s Hunter Civil is poised for another busy year that will further cement its reputation, gained through taking on an array of projects of significant scale and complexity.
Founded in 2008 by owner/director Graham Hunter, the company has a strong track record of being able to provide engineer solutions from highly complex briefs. Every project is underpinned by systematic planning.
One of the company’s most challenging ventures in 2015 was the base isolation retro-fit project at the Christchurch City Art Gallery. Hunter Civil spent 10 months onsite working as a subcontractor for Fulton Hogan. In total, 130 base isolators were installed to ensure the building would effectively float on its foundations in any future earthquake, with Hunter Civil completing a portion of these works in the southeast corner. To fit the isolators, the building had to be propped up and severed from its foundations.
“The work we did on this project was extremely technical and difficult,” says Jason Fergusson, Hunter Civil’s operations manager. “If you have been to Te Papa in Wellington, you will know what these base isolators look like. It is one thing to put them in when you are constructing a building; retrofitting them in an existing building is considerably more challenging.
“It was hard work but the job looks great now. Of course, you can’t see what we did because it is now all buried below the floor slabs.”
In 2015, Hunter Civil also provided civil construction work for repairs on Christchurch’s quake-damaged Moorhouse Avenue overbridge. Hunter Civil has been operating as part of the Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team, or SCIRT. This has proved another technically difficult project, staged over 20 months with works carried out so as to allow traffic to keep flowing. Eight of 10 concrete bridge piers or supports required strengthening with new concrete ‘jackets’ added to existing columns, while two piers needed to be fully demolished and rebuilt.
“You can’t shut down an overbridge like this so you have to work within the existing structure. It was certainly been one of the more interesting projects of 2015 for us.”
Hunter Civil maintains an open office environment and a flat management structure. It means no-one ever works alone and everyone gets an input before tenders are submitted. “We comprehensively assess the risks, determine how long it will take and that we have the right resources and people before we progress to the next stage. We would not contemplate approaching a tender any other way.” There is a strong focus on innovation and outside the square thinking to deliver effective engineering solutions.
Rather than specialising in a particular work type, or favouring design and planning over construction, Jason says the company is committed to providing whole solutions. “So you won’t need to get another guy to do part of the work. We are a one-off shop, especially for complex projects where comprehensive planning and risk assessment drives project performance.”
Hunter Civil has proven capability across a wide range of structural and civil engineering projects from skate parks to bridges and pump stations to wharves and reservoirs.
“We are committed to further expanding our niche market capability where we continually strive to be the best we can be by exposing ourselves to new and often technically challenging work. We learn from every job and embrace new challenges.”
Jason says mediocre results are not acceptable at Hunter Civil. The company sets exacting standards. Younger staff members are encou raged to step up and run projects on the ground, with the support of senior and more experienced members
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of the team. Expertise is shared and the process of upskilling is ongoing.
With new local body contracts already secured for 2016, the stage is set for another successful year ahead for the Hunter Civil team.
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