August 26 2009

The Gold Coast Convention Centre extension project won the Tourism and Hospitality Facilities ($8 - $30 million) category at the 2009 Gold Coast Housing and Construction Awards in early August

The awards, run by the Master Builders Association, recognise excellence in construction and are judged on the quality of workmanship, degree of difficulty, innovations and project management.

The project involved a major extension of the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Australia’s largest regional convention centre, and all works were undertaken while the centre continued operations.

Construction Manager Mark Gaskin said the award was a great recognition of the team’s exceptional efforts on the project.

Laing O'Rourke adopted a number of construction initiatives that not only minimised impact from construction activity but also meant the works were completed a month ahead of schedule.

“The challenge of handling the precast panels from the casting beds at ground level to erecting them at the structural level wasn’t an easy task as there had to be an 80 tonne mobile crane set up on the concrete deck,” Mark said. “This required extensive back propping of the second floor down to the ground slab.

“This work was done out of hours due to limited access.  The site team put a great effort into erecting the supports, dealing with the complexities that were placed in front of them.”

The Gold Coast award follows on from Laing O’Rourke’s recent win in the Downs and Western Region, where we were awarded Project of the Year for Miles Hospital.

Both projects will now progress to the MBA State Final which will be held in October.

Click here for more information on the project.