Rebuilding Christchurch | Westende House - Leighs Construction
New retail projects Leighs Construction was half way through a $6m upgrade of the Kaiapoi New World supermarket when the premise was destroyed by the September 4, 2010, earthquake. Leighs carried out the contract for the new $12 million replacement supermarket, and before any work could begin substantial ground remediation was required, a stone column system being chosen consisting of the installation through low frequency vibration of 499 columns to a depth of eight metres.
From the Cashel Mall Re:Start and Ballantynes, to the rebuild of Les Mills in Cashel St, Canterbury-based Leighs Construction Ltd has completed a range of innovative projects in the past two years. The dust from the February 22, 2011 earthquake had hardly settled before city business leaders were vowing to re-establish the heart of the retail and commercial sector. Leighs Construction adopted a highly pro-active role in the process, working alongside property owners and businesses as they planned to re-open retail stores and hospitality venues by late October last year.
Leighs completes major projects in Christchurch rebuild
In a short few months Re:Start was up and open and at the same time Ballantynes department store was transformed; a huge task with Leighs’ contractors working long hours to achieve the result on time.
Re:Start was the first initiative to get business operating again within the central city and involves the unique 27-container shop precinct near Ballantynes..
Award-winning project Les Mills Gym in Cashel St won for Leighs Construction Ltd the New Zealand Master Builders’ Commercial Project Awards Tourism and Leisure Project of 2010. The exciting fourstorey 3,875 square metre premises opened in October 2009, surpassing anything of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
“Initially people believed Re:Start, using new containers, would be temporary and crude, but the architecturally-led project has turned out to be very cool and admired by Christchurch people,” Anthony Leighs says.
Its target was for 40 percent lower water and energy consumption compared to the existing Les Mills gyms. To achieve it, the build incorporated some of the latest environmentally sustainable design features, including a façade to maximise thermal and acoustic performance through the combined effect of pre-finished fibre cement exterior cladding, double glazing and multi-cell polycarbonate interior cladding.
The doors to the new 2,400sqm state-of-the-art supermarket opened last December. Briscoes’ new Salisbury St premise opened in July, after Leighs Construction successfully placed beams on piles to provide a suspended liquefaction-proof concrete slab floor and completed the building a month earlier than originally planned.
Damaged in the earthquakes, the building was repaired by Leighs Construction, and by the end of March this year members were back enjoying the sophisticated facilities.
Before the earthquakes, Leighs had won and completed several significant government and defence contracts, plus high-level domestic and international work, including a $35 million contract for a Meadow Mushrooms compost plant, Hallenstein Glassons buildings and the New Zealand Embassy in Dili, East Timor.
Leighs Construction PO Box 11191 Sockburn Christchurch 8443 T (03) 341 6905 E mail@leighsconstruction.com www.leighsconstruction.com <
Leighs Construction built the new $12 million Kaiapoi New World.
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www.canterburytoday.co.nz November/December 2012 | 47