Kmart safety inspection on Monday
BUILDING inspectors will visit Queenstown’s new Kmart store on Monday to assess repair work after a worker cut through several vital steel bars on the site.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council issued nationwide firm Dominion Constructors Ltd with a ‘‘Notice to Fix’’ in late August after problems, which affected two buildings on the Frankton Flats site, were discovered.
The notice required Dominion to repair steel reinforcing bars connecting the buildings’ concrete panel walls and foundations, after they were cut.
Remedial work is under way at the Queenstown Central retail complex development but the council will need to sign off on the work before buildings on the site can be approved for public use.
Most of the $100 million first stage of the development, including the 4000sq m Kmart store, was meant to open on October 4.
Delays to construction work on site, which both Dominion and Queenstown Central Ltd claimed were mainly due to adverse weather, led to many of the tenants waiting for premises having their fitout dates pushed back.
The Kmart store is now expected to open on Thursday.
Queenstown Lakes District Council communications adviser Campbell Weal confirmed yesterday that the council’s building inspections team would attend the site on Monday morning to carry out checks.
The retail centre will house about 45 tenants in four buildings once it is complete.