The existing Bay of Islands Hospital is located on a pre-1920’s hospital site in Kawakawa. The hospital provides comprehensive medical, maternity and paediatric services, as well as a substantial community health service to the people in the Bay of Islands and the mid-north. The latest two-storey addition comprises a new accident and medical department, x-ray and consultation facilities (bottom level) and an in-patient ward (top level). The new building is tied into the existing hospital buildings through various access points around its perimeter. The design was developed through intensive consultation with the clinical users and the Board’s facility management team. Early contractor involvement enabled robust consideration of options for building form, services strategies, construction methodology and materials to maximise value. WSP was engaged to provide Structural Engineering design and construction monitoring services on the project.
A significant challenge of this project was maintaining the operation of the existing hospital building while the new building works were undertaken. Demolition works were required to make space for the new building and a separate enabling works package was undertaken to stabilise the remaining portions of partly demolished buildings. Minimal documentation was available for the existing structures, therefore our team at WSP were required to develop bespoke stabilising solutions at the interface with the existing structure, demonstrating our ability to work collaboratively with the contractor to overcome technical challenges where no to very little historic as-built information exists. WSP’s local Whangarei office was utilised for construction monitoring services.
During this project our team also worked closely with local iwi, Ngāti Hine, to develop a new Integrated Family Health Centre directly adjacent to the hospital development. This design was to incorporate local tikanga elements key to the Iwi within the building form while designing for sustainable construction methods.
