CANBERRA-BASED builder Bloc has been hit by a double whammy after another one of its Newcastle construction projects was flooded by a burst water pipe.
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Newcastle's largest stand-alone office building, The Store, was flooded last month after the fire sprinkler system failed on the fifth floor on February 23, causing significant damage.
It's understood the water, up to 10,000 litres a minute, was left running for some time at the DOMA Group project because the fire alarm system was not complete and did not alert the NSW Fire Brigade when it failed.
A fire crew would normally respond to an alarm and shut off the building's water supply to prevent further damage.
DOMA Group's general manager development Gavin Edgar said an investigation was underway by Bloc's insurer, but it appeared the problem was a defective sprinkler head above a meeting room.
"Bloc staff were on site completing other fitout works when the incident occurred and they immediately dealt with the situation and clean up," he said.
The clean-up at the Verve revealed several structural problems in the almost completed Newcastle West residential complex.
Several structural blade walls, meant to be filled with concrete, were found with large hollow pockets and engineers were called in to assess and rectify the problem.
Sources told the Newcastle Herald, the 11-storey Store office complex was left significantly water damaged on level five and below.
A video and photos supplied to the Herald show a worker walking through flooded rooms in the Stewart Avenue building as a huge volume of water continues to gush from the ceiling.
Similar to the Verve flooding incident, that happened as residents were moving in, the timing couldn't have been worse at The Store, with the building nearing completion.
Mr Edgar said between three and four per cent of the "total building area" was impacted by water damage.
"Because the building is nearly finished Bloc diverted resource capacity on site that were available from the completed upper floors to the lower floors and then ran a night shift to get the affected areas rectified," he said.
"All the elements that need replacing such as carpet and vinyl and ceiling tiles have been ordered and or installed and will be closed out with their insurer as is normal in these situations."
In April 2018, DOMA won the tender to develop the former Store site as a mixed use development, which included delivery of a new bus interchange.
The $200 million development comprises a five-storey car park, two 30-storey residential towers and the 11-storey stand-alone office building, that comprises 15,000 square metres of office space.
It will be anchored by NSW government tenants for 10 years.
Mr Edgar said Bloc would handover the building in about two weeks and Property NSW staff would move in from mid April to early May.
- Donna.page@newcastleherald.com.au
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