Engineering Report

Background

The old Sydenham Police Station has now been replaced by a new Christchurch South Police station following the relocation of Sydenham Police from its old building in Stanley Street into new premises in the Beckenham shops on Colombo Street. Due to the old premises in Stanley Street damaged by a bomb explosion in 1991, three bedroom house and warehouse were converted to accommodate police officers responsible for the southern half of Christchurch. Presumably, it was far from ideal for the police station to operate in an old single-storey house and an additional building tucked away in back streets which was hard to find. After over 17 years of lobbying for a new police station, the project was finally secured and the completion of the new site was an exciting yet long overdue news for Sydenham police.

Beca was commissioned by the New Zealand Police to offer full architectural and engineering services, including civil and structural, mechanical and electrical, fire survey and traffic services. Two important steps were conducted by Becca to ensure the successful delivery of services. First, during the design process, Beca undertook stakeholder consultation in the form of user groups held among Area Commanders, officers and general staff, in order to align expectations across stakeholders and provide services within budget. Second, the new building’s alignment with the rating standards was demonstrated through a GreenStar assessment.

Arrow International was appointed as the contractor to build a two-storey 1500m2 police property which includes interview rooms, office areas together with the staff facilities and amenities. As part of the building process, Arrow was responsible for facilitating the development of the client brief, managing the Project Control Group, consultation and coordination with the user group representatives, leading the design process, obtaining NZ Police approvals of