Kingsbridge Estates

The client

Enterprise Homes Ltd are the longest established land development and residential housing company in Christchurch. They offer high-quality house and land packages and in their 68-year history they have built over 6,000 homes and developed many prestigious sub-divisions in Christchurch.

The challenge

Enterprise Homes had only just completed the Kingsbridge Estates Subdivision in Burwood, Christchurch when the 2010 – 2011 Canterbury earthquakes occurred. There was extensive land damage with liquefaction and ground settlement to large parts of the site. Initially it was thought the whole site would have to be abandoned or would be too costly to repair.

Enterprise Homes needed to re-develop the site in a cost-effective manner whilst complying with new earthquake resistant foundation design requirements.

The solution

We have a long-standing relationship with Enterprise Homes and they approached us to carry out a comprehensive ground investigation of the site. From this we offered suggestions on the ground improvements and foundation design requirements needed for them to redevelop the land.

We completed a detailed geotechnical assessment of the deep ground conditions and assessed the risk of liquefaction across a range of earthquake scenarios. Our survey team provided a detailed analysis of the lateral movement of the land caused by the earthquakes. We compared our assessments against actual land performance and this analysis was critical in influencing the geotechnical options we presented to our client.

We determined which areas of the site required simple ground improvements and which areas required more significant work to mitigate the higher risk of liquefaction and lateral stretch. As a result, we significantly reduced the amount of earthwork required for the residential construction to be completed. We provided our client with a range of geotechnically suitable ground improvement and foundation options for each site, allowing them to complete a cost benefit analysis on each new dwelling.

With support from our experienced team of planners, surveyors and geotechnical engineers, Enterprise Homes completed their development. They have built modern dwellings that are supported on earthquake-resistant foundations, and most importantly, at an acceptable price-point for the market.