Kilmore Street Reconstruction

Overview

Work began during September 2018 with an estimated completion date of December 2018. By modifying the programme to ensure that both the Christchurch Town Hall rebuild, and the Kilmore Street reconstruction works finished on time, we were able to complete the project two weeks ahead of schedule.

This project involved the construction of 2,500m² road/carriageway. Isaac carried out the excavation and rebuild as well as subsequent asphalt surfacing on a prime coat. The project also included new footpaths, new kerb and channels and stormwater pipes, all of which were delivered within two separate portions. Further scope of works included a 5-way intersection traffic light upgrade; ducting and cable laying for streetlights, including road crossings. Full streetlight replacement and upgrade, 900m² of deeplift asphalt, construction of interlocking concrete block areas, road marking and signage together with street furniture and pedestrian features.

Challenges

This section of the Kilmore Street upgrade was overlapped with the final stages of the Christchurch Town Hall rebuild, which was a long-anticipated three yearlong project, both projects coming within a month of each other to share a completion date of early 2019. Due to the two projects having to share the workspace with scope intersecting, the Isaac team worked with GHD and CCC to modify the construction programme to ensure that both projects could be completed on time, especially the re-opening of the Christchurch Town Hall which could not change. This added a large amount of extra pressure to complete the project on-time while having no incidents or remedial works.

Additional to this, half of the space that was available had stringent traffic constraints, which made it even harder to sequence and complete an already difficult project. A single lane was allowable for approximately 150 metres of Kilmore Street, but then any traffic closures down to one lane (within 60 metres) of the five-way intersection had to be done between the hours of 6pm – 5am or on the weekends. At all other times the approach to the intersection needed to maintain four lanes of traffic. Ideally from this scenario we would have just put all of the teams onto nightshift, but with dozens of residential apartments and a large hotel right in the middle of the job, this was aimed to be reduced to a bare minimum- two weeks of nights overall.

The Isaac team had to find ways to achieve these project-specific objectives while working in the same space as a large number of other contractors working in and around the town hall, always adhering to stringent traffic constraints. The rest of the scope was carried out through a mixture of weekends, late nights, early shifts, nightshifts and even double shifts where a second crew would come in to replace the crew coming off-shift to accelerate the programme wherever possible, which resulted in an early completion of the project with minimal impact on the town hall programme.

Awards

CCNZ Canterbury / Westland Awards 2019: AB Equipment – Innovation Award
Isaac Construction was awarded for the superior innovation around methodology employed during the unique circumstances on the Kilmore Street Reconstruction Project.

CCNZ Canterbury / Westland Awards 2019: Liebherr NZ – Company Image Award
Awarded to Isaac Construction for excellence in how the company and our people, presents to, and works alongside with, our clients, subcontractors, the community, residents, businesses, and other affected stakeholders on projects. Going above and beyond to deliver on their needs while delivering great outcomes for all.