Good progress on new police headquarters
Another milestone has been reached on construction of the Eastern District Police headquarters in Hastings with the arrival of the first load of steel beams, and core braces installed over the last two weeks.
Construction of the building that will also be the Hastings Police Station, began in April after two years of discussions between police and Hastings District Council.
Work has continued steadily over winter, with Patton Engineering manufacturing steel beams at Whakatu¯ , the longest measuring 15m and weighing two tonnes each.
A ship had arrived in Napier from the US with a load of core braces.
With the ground underneath being earthquake strengthened with concrete, they would add extra reinforcement.
The core braces acted like a shock absorber and most of them would be fitted to the external walls, a feature for the overall look of the building.
When finished, the purposebuilt building would be a threestorey, state-of-the-art facility, which represented a $19.8 million investment into the Hastings district economy.
The building is due to be completed by the end of next year.
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the council was thrilled to have the Eastern District Police headquarters in Hastings city.
“This is a significant project which will house essential police roles within our CBD and is an enormous investment in our district.”
In conjunction with this build, Hastings District Council has committed to reconfiguring its Emergency Management Centre on Lyndon Road East.
If disaster struck, and the Police headquarters was not functioning, this would mean there was space available for the police at the upgraded Emergency Management Centre to carry out emergency response work.