Concrete Pour at New Wellington Regional Children’s Hospital

The McKee Fehl team are managing a significant 900m3 concrete pour over the next 12 hours into the first half of the main raft slab at the New Wellington Regional Children’s Hospital (NWRCH) in Newtown.

A technical approach has been devised to ensure the smooth coordination of this critical operation. Contractors, engineers and consultants have worked together to devise a seamless approach with back-up suppliers and plant firmly in place.

The pour will start at 3pm on Saturday May 4th when the roads are at their quietest. Over 165 truck loads will transfer 900m3  of concrete to encase the approximately 103,000kg of reinforcing steel, which total 43,000 lineal metres of bar.

Throughout the pour, the team will maintain an average supply rate of approximately 100m3/hour of concrete, delivered at a rate of 20 trucks per hour. 

Concrete will be supplied by Higgins Concrete who are dedicating two batching plants to the task, in Porirua and Ngauranga Gorge, to deliver 70-80m3/hour to site and have partnered with Firth Concrete to supplement with a further 30m3/hour and provide backup in the unlikely event of a breakdown. 

Precision Concrete Pumping will be operating two concrete pumps throughout with a third pump on standby as backup.

This concrete pour marks an important milestone in the construction of the children’s hospital which will be opened in 2021.