Abigroup Prescribes LYSAGHT BONDEK® for Newcastle Centre

Location:	Newcastle, New South Wales
Country:	Australia
Project Size:	12,500 square metres of LYSAGHT BONDEK®
Architect:	Suters Architects
Builder:	Abigroup
Formwork Contractor:	Wideform Newcastle Pty Ltd
Products Used:	LYSAGHT BONDEK®

A government plan to speed the delivery of community health facilities in the Newcastle region is combining innovative construction methods with innovative financing arrangements.

When the Newcastle Community Health Centre opens it will accommodate a number of services currently provided from the Royal Newcastle Hospital and other facilities. More than 1,200 people a day will visit or work in the new facility, bringing people back to Newcastle's West End.

Hunter New England Health will be a long term tenant, occupying almost half of the six storey building under an arrangement that will deliver a larger project brought on line more quickly than if traditional government funding methods had been used.

Building contractor Abigroup has collaborated with Suters Architects to ensure the most time efficient methods are used in the construction process. The building, which will also house commercial offices, was designed, is being constructed and financed and will be owned by the private sector.

Suters Architects had its origins in Newcastle nearly 50 years ago and has evolved into a dynamic architecture firm with offices in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane and Melbourne.

"Abigroup is constructing the building on vacant land in what will become the new commercial hub of Newcastle," said Chris Acevski of Suters Architects. "We have worked with them to incorporate changes in the way elements of the building are to be constructed."

Abigroup "Project Manager Arthur Panagopoulos said the aim had been to minimise the resources required on site and to enhance productivity.

"We are working towards quicker and better ways of building, including the use of pre-cast elements which can be fabricated off-site," he said. "We also decided to change to LYSAGHT BONDEK® structural steel decking instead of traditional formwork."

Formwork contractor Wideform Newcastle Pty Ltd is laying 12,500 square metres of 1.0mm LYSAGHT BONDEK® for the six suspended slabs of the building.

"Originally this building was designed for conventional formwork, but Abigroup calculated that they could achieve time and labour savings by switching to BONDEK®," Wideform Newcastle's Project Manager, Trevor Wilson said. "We are spanning 6.7 metres from band beam to band beam using three sets of temporary propping to support each span.

"BONDEK® reduces our manpower requirement and that represents a significant saving for a project of this size. Using conventional formwork on this job would have involved Wideform Newcastle committing from 15 to 20 men over a period of nine months or more.

"With BONDEK® we are able to complete the contract using just 10 to 12 men. Even with 6.7 metre lengths of the 1.0mm thickness it's an easy lift for two men. There is a higher material cost involved, but we have done our sums and there are savings to be made by selecting BONDEK®. On this job and on an even larger project, such as the Westfield Kotara shopping centre expansion, where we are using 50,000 square metres of BONDEK® there is a constant effort to minimise the labour requirement.

"It's not simply a matter of keeping labour costs down, it also makes sense from an occupational health and safety viewpoint. By having less people involved, the likelihood of worksite accidents is also reduced.

"BlueScope Lysaght has worked well with us on this job. They have provided a good service, especially when we have put in late orders or required different lengths as a result of modifications to plans or things of that nature."

Trevor Wilson said Wideform Newcastle arranged for BlueScope Lysaght to deliver the LYSAGHT BONDEK® sheets to the formwork contractor's yard at Heatherbrae on Newcastle's north side. Wideform Newcastle then trucks sheets to the construction site as it requires them.

"This site is like most sites because space is quite limited, but if we didn't have our own big yard then BlueScope Lysaght are flexible enough to deliver direct to site in the quantity we want at the intervals we nominate," he said.

"The other advantage with BONDEK® is that there is very little waste. The lengths arrive cut to size and the decks stay clean because you don't have offcuts lying around. On a multi storey job there are other advantages when you use BONDEK®. It is lighter than ply and there is less propping required, so you are craning much less material up to each level as the work goes ahead and that produces savings."

When it opens later in 2007 the polyclinic will provide health services including a dental clinic, diabetic education and clinic service, drug rehabilitation services, outpatient speech pathology and dietetics, community stroke team, spinal cord unit and an after hours GP medical service.

LYSAGHT BONDEK® decking is the original steel formwork system that revolutionised concrete construction. It is made from deckform® zinc coated high tensile steel which was developed by BlueScope Steel specifically for the steel decking market. It delivers excellent durability and is backed by a BlueScope Steel warranty and nationwide technical support.

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