This month, Mainzeal will begin construction of a five-and-a-half storey carpark at Wintec’s central city campus in Hamilton.
The $5 million, 257-bay carpark is being built along Nisbet Street, close to Wintec’s historic brick corner building. The carpark will primarily service students and staff; and some local commercial tenants, with public parking available after hours, on weekends and during school holidays.
The carpark is set for completion in early 2011.
CEO of Wintec, Mark Flowers, says parking on their city campus is always in demand and the building will help alleviate this pressure.
“Not only will staff and students benefit from the additional parking, the building will also support the large events space in the newly refurbished building - The Atrium - giving attendees easy access to parking,” explained Mr Flowers.
Mainzeal’s Waikato Manager, Finlay Irwin, says his team is looking forward to leading this major project for Wintec.
“Our local Mainzeal office has contracted to Wintec on several major projects, including the current renovations we’re doing to this building and construction of the new hub on their Avalon campus, which opened in March.
“Everyone on our team lives and works in Hamilton and that’s why we take a lot of pride in being a part of significant projects like this that add value to our client’s facilities and the city itself. The new carpark will certainly create a positive amenity for the institute and will add to the modernisation of the surrounding landscape,” explains Mr Irwin.
Mr Flowers said ground would be broken for the carpark within the next few weeks. The first step in construction involves excavating and removing soil from the Nisbet Street site.
“Our team will begin the project by excavating five thousand cubic metres of dirt from the site, which is equivalent to the weight of approximately four million Huntly bricks. That’s around four thousand tonnes of dirt,” says Mr Irwin.
The Wintec carpark will feature an architectural facade of random patterned glass, known in the building industry as ‘crazy glass.’
The carpark will include a link bridge to a newly landscaped courtyard, which is part of the refurbishment Mainzeal is leading at Wintec’s historic building.
Energy efficiency lighting is also a key feature of the new carpark.
Additional facts about the Wintec carpark include:
· 750 cubic metres of reinforced concrete will form the carpark foundation. That is equivalent to 81,000 20kg bags of concrete or the weight of around 240 elephants.
· The steel support frame will contain 200 tonnes of fabricated steel – that is equivalent to the weight of around 135 cars.
· Each of the precast concrete floors will measure 6400 square metres, just a few square metres smaller than a rugby field.
· There will be over one kilometre of protection barriers surrounding the site.