Forsyth Barr - Earthquake Works

764 Colombo Street

In the 17-storey Forsyth Barr Christchurch building all but the upper two floors of stairs collapsed in the February 2011 earthquake, leaving seven flights of reinforced concrete perched precariously above the empty stairwell.  Engineers rated this a serious drop hazard, preventing further investigative work on the building from taking place near the stairwell so getting these flights out was a top priority.  A complex four-months operation with a complicated method to remove the flights of stairs by propping each flight with a temporary steel frame, then cutting them in half and lifting sections out through the roof using a large crane.

The task was one of the most difficult and time-consuming of numerous commercial building projects undertaken by Pace in the city’s badly damaged central business district.

On completing the works, the some 40 or so tenants in the building had to have all the FF&E removed from each floor via cradle operated via large crane to the side of the building.
Access into the building was via full height building temporary scaffold stair to the side of the building tied on place to the main structure for safety during general use and in seismic activity.