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June 18, 2012 9:00am by David Farrar

A 30 story hotel in 15 days

Watch this three minute video of a 30 story hotel being built in just 15 days.

I’m guessing it wasn’t a unionised workforce 🙂

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Comments (18)

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scrubone

I’m staring at that URL text, and I’m really not seeing it.
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June 18, 2012 9:06am
Cobolt

Wrong link DPF.
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June 18, 2012 9:07am
George Patton

Amazing stuff, but I guess the first thing that entered in my mind was “did anyone die in the construction process”
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June 18, 2012 9:21am
Manolo

Brilliant!
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June 18, 2012 9:24am
hj

Did the pesky “people” get in the way?
http://blog.theepochtimes.com/1/china/2011/10/05/chinese-farmers-seize-excavators-to-protest-forced-eviction/
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June 18, 2012 9:43am
Fox

Must be pretty depressing for Christchurch residents to watch this, and then compare it to the pace of reconstruction in their own city.
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June 18, 2012 9:49am
Viking2

Someone who knows more than me like to comment on the curing time for concrete before you load it up.
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June 18, 2012 9:52am
swan

“Someone who knows more than me like to comment on the curing time for concrete before you load it up.”

Looks like it was all steel construction. The foundations appear to be precast concrete piles. So they would have had to put orders in well before construction started – and it doesn’t look like they counted site prep/ foundations in the 15 days. Very impressive nonetheless – in particular the floor slabs that were factory fitted with plumbing and electrical (right up to the light fittings by the looks of it).
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June 18, 2012 10:12am
swan

“Amazing stuff, but I guess the first thing that entered in my mind was “did anyone die in the construction process””

A fair question. I have to say though, the workforce looked extremely professional, and the site must have been very well organised to pull that off. A well organised/ well planned construction activity is generally a safer construction activity.
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June 18, 2012 10:16am
scrubone

I agree with swan – this certainly isn’t a case of speed through reduced safty, rather modularisation and brilliant project management.
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June 18, 2012 10:41am
barry

Several comments.

1. I notice they work 24 hours……..

2. Its a steel building.

3. If we had more steel buildings in Chch we wouldnt have killed so many people. (I think all the steel buildings performed very well – only concret buildings fell down)

4. We dont build steel buildings because the Boiler Makers Union basically stopped them being built many years ago and in NZ the industry has gone concrete. (there have been toungue-in-cheek suggestions that the Union should be charged with manslaughter since their actions resulted in so many concrete buildings being built with the resultant loss of life)

5. You can build a floor a day in concrete – they were doing this 40 years ago in Hong Kong . They use ‘accelerants’ – it makes the concrete set faster. (they have many addatives in concrete. They use retardants to slow setting – how do you think they deliver concrete in trucks that take a couple of hours to drive to where its wanted?)

6. In NZ the safety regulations and work hours regulations and council regulations, let alone the months or years to get consent and fight off the crazies (extreme greens) means it would take years to build it – and by then rust would have set in…..
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June 18, 2012 10:49am
labrator

Surely they meant it was erected in 15 days… Prefabrication is still part of the building process.

Incredible though. If I imported one into NZ do you think I could get resource consent in 15 days?
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June 18, 2012 11:04am
John Macilree

Brilliant!

And, as tourism gateway to the South Island, Christchurch really does need replacement hotel capacity as soon as possible.
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June 18, 2012 11:28am
marcw

Hmm… and recent tragedies in Doha show that speed isn’t really a goal that can be aspired to on its own. Although in fairness, our slow and ponderous consent and building industry is hardly perfect (think PGG and CTV disasters which it appears at present, may have been preventable.)
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June 18, 2012 11:45am
OTGO

Maybe that’s why the showers leaked in the five hotels I stayed in. Brand new for the most part, built with beautiful marble floors and premium furnishings but without exception every one of them had a shower that leaked out of the bathroom and onto the carpet.
Still an achievement unlikely to be repeated in NZ though.
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June 18, 2012 11:49am
Paulus

Steel girder construction ?
Remember the Boilermaker’s Union on the BNZ in Wellington.
What would Labour/Greens say if you decided that way in Christchurch.
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June 18, 2012 1:32pm
Spoon

Agree with labrator – the hotel was assembled in fifteen days, the actual building I suspect took many months longer.

To the people suggesting Chch should be envious – if they wanted to do this in Chch they’d need to build a factory (the old fashioned way) first, then plan how to do it, then start working. Realistically I doubt you’d get to the first floor inside a year, much less a 30 storey building.
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June 18, 2012 1:38pm
RRM

That is a pretty impressive construction programme.

It will be a pretty noisy hotel without concrete floor slabs. I hope the guests like the sound of the people upstairs walking around…?

(I hope the seismic performance of it lives up to their billing too…)
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June 18, 2012 2:54pm

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