Vehicle Storage Facility

The client

The Car Distribution Group (CDG) is New Zealand’s leading vehicle distribution network. They provide nationwide delivery, storage, and tracking systems amongst a range of other services for automotive businesses and retailers throughout the country.

With depots and storage facilities in most main centres, they came to us seeking concepts and detailed designs for the stormwater discharge consents of a new storage facility to consolidate their Christchurch operations.

The challenge

Because CDG is Auckland-based, yet their project manager is Wellington-based, they needed Christchurch-based consultants on the ground to manage and oversee the entire project. Time frames were tight, and it wasn’t ideal that the design had not been fully developed when construction needed to start either.

We also needed to regularly monitor progress of the earthworks and adjust the design model to provide a balance of material, which in effect meant no material could either be imported or exported from the site. This included survey monitoring of the dynamic compaction of the in-situ unconsolidated fill, and of the contaminated material that needed to remain encapsulated on site.

The solution

By taking a collaborative approach with the contractor from day one, we visited the site several times a week to check the work against designs by survey and visual observation. These visits also provided us the opportunity to effectively advise how to manage factors such as erosion, sediment control and weather conditions.

Our site observations were regularly fed back to the client representative and the design team; initially as a separate consultant, and then in-house when we took over responsibility for completing the detailed design. In several cases, it meant we had to modify the detailed design to accommodate specific requirements of particular groups. For example, providing construction methodology for working around buried 33kV and 66kV electricity cables.

Construction included bulk earthworks, large-scale pavement, stormwater, sewer and water supply services, and hardscaping. To mitigate any risk from contaminated areas that had been identified, UAV photogrammetry and appropriate surveys were undertaken before, during and after construction.