NZ Convention Centre fire costly for subbies
The SkyCity Convention Centre fire could prove costly for subcontractors replacing damaged gear.
Fletcher Construction said it was allowing subcontractors access to some levels of the NZ International Convention Centre (NZICC) site to enable them to remove their personal belongings.
‘‘This is a complex process being undertaken by structural and environmental safety experts.
‘‘At this stage we are not able to give a date by which all subcontractor materials will be retrieved from the building.’’
Labour hire company Turbo Staff estimates it has spent about $25,000 re-equipping workers with the basics after they were forced to abandon their tools when they were evacuated during the fire a month ago. Managing director Ihaka Rongonui said they had not yet replaced the expensive items such as laser levels which were $3000 to $5000 each and Fletcher had indicated they would be able to collect tools over the next two days.
In the weeks before the fire broke out, he said, the Fletcher subsidiary managing the SkyCity site had asked all subcontractors whether their tools were insured but his were not owing to the high premiums insurers charged for hand tools because they were so often stolen.
‘‘Given that they raised the point with us before the event, I feel as though I am in a bit of a stalemate in the argument around asking for financial support. We will likely just take the hit and write it off as an act of god event.’’
Hirepool has about 400 pieces of equipment ranging from hand tools to about 100 larger items such as scissor lifts which were widely used instead of ladders for interior work on the centre.
Chief executive Brian Stephenson said Fletcher was allowing his staff to retrieve a company ute left in the lower level of the car park, and he was hoping to get inside soon to check out equipment affected by the blaze and the vast quantities of water used to fight it.
‘‘From the photos we have seen, the gear doesn’t look too bad.
‘‘Most of our gear was below the level of where the fire was but there may be some water damage because a lot of [the lifts] have electrics.’’
EWP Technical repairs and maintains scissor lifts and general manager Zander Newby said some of the hundreds of machines in the NZICC at the time of the fire might have to be written off.
‘‘If it is just smoke and water damage, they would be worth repairing for sure but the big booms, if they have had things falling on them, they could have been bent. Until we can inspect each one, it is hard to know.
‘‘The control boxes and things like that are designed for outdoor showers and light rain, nothing torrential.’’
High temperatures could have melted hydraulic hoses and electrical wiring, he said, and new scissor lifts ranged in price from $15,000 to $100,000.
A Fletcher spokesperson said the company had liaised regularly with subcontractors since the fire, and all tools and belongings had been removed from the adjacent Horizon Hotel site.
All subcontractors had been paid for work done up until the day of the fire and some had been redeployed to other projects while planning for the rebuild continued.