Aotea Carpark

In 2008 the go ahead was given to revamp the Aotea carpark and square above. Over loading of gardens had compressed the bearings, cracked beams and floor slab of the roof and caused leaks. A program of work to remove the gardens, jack up and replace the bearings, install K braces and fit a complete new slab above the existing roof was initiated.

The scope of work Lowery undertook

• Drilling to fit lateral braces
• Jacking systems
• K braces
• Services
• Access manholes.

This is probably the most intensively drilled structure we have been involved with. Many thousands of holes were drilled with very tight tolerances to fit the steel work, horizontally, vertically down and over head.
Where the jacks were installed into the side of columns, we scanned for steel before drilling then 50mm pins were inserted and up to 600 tonnes was applied to lift the roof off the bearing to be replaced. If a hole were not properly aligned the full force would be applied and damage ensued.

K braces had patterns of up to 42 holes 40mm diameter up to 800mm deep to fit the steel work and miss beam steel.
600mm diameter man holes were drilled over head into the void created by the new roof slab.

Most of our work was drilling although we have performed specialised cutting as part of the demolition process
In all a challenging job that has gone well, our operators understood what was required of them and delivered the results – a good team effort.