STOKE CENTRE: The Greenmeadows Centre has been plagued by issues since construction began. Photo: Charles Anderson.

Local subbies dig in to save Greenmeadows

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Local subcontractors are banding together to ‘get the job done’ at the embattled Greenmeadows Centre.

A local subcontractor, who didn’t want to be named, says that he is sticking it out for the greater good of Stoke and the centre.

“I’ve got to see it through to the end, it doesn’t help anyone if I pull out now.”

The project has already had a $1million budget increase from its original price and has had its deadline pushed out several times. It is now not due to open until next year.

Nelson City Council has found various building and structural faults in the building that are being fixed. The subcontractor says that there is a new Watts and Hughes site manager now on site who he has “a lot of faith in to get the job done”.

The site manager up till recently has been Mike Brophy but is now Darryl Harris.

Documents provided to the Nelson Weekly by Nelson City Council show that a consultant meeting was held on site on June 26 to assess what actions needed to be taken to fix the issues found with the building.

In a report, Onus Construction’s Peter Chisolm laid out the plan which included many issues to be rectified. Onus had until recently been the project manager but has now been removed.

The documents revealed that when the plywood was taken off the carpark side of the building to assess moisture damage, it showed that below the flashings, an entire row of cavity batons were missing. There were also a number of batons missing at the bottom, and certain parts of the flashing were damaged beyond repair.

Due to this, the contractor Watts and Hughes, were not permitted to line or clad any more walls without it being inspected by the now removed project manager or council building inspector.

The document also revealed that a week before the Stoke Rugby Club open day, the bottom shelf of the display cabinet collapsed, leaving the glass door hanging loosely. Watts and Hughes failed to repair this, even though it was asked to do so. Council was forced to get a separate contractor to install screws late on the Friday to make the cabinet safe for the following day.

Other issues discussed were walls not being straight and concrete remedial works on the deck where water had been pooling.

It was noted in the on-site meeting that Watts and Hughes had not demonstrated to the building inspector that they had suitable methodology in place to protect the framing and gib lining while the cladding is being replaced and flashing is still being installed.

They had agreed to have the methodology in place by June 20 but had still failed to do so by the meeting date.

Council’s building manager Martin Brown said there was a misconception about how buildings were checked. He said it was not unusual for many buildings to fail inspections like Greenmeadows had – the expectation was that they would all be fixed by the time the code compliance certificate was to be issued. If they did not, then the building would not get the code compliance certificate.

Council is due to issue an update on the project in the coming days.