Otago Polytechnic Student Village – let the show begin!

Media release – Otago Polytechnic

For immediate release, 26 October 2016

Conceptual image

Otago Polytechnic Student Village – let the show begin!

The excitement of Otago Polytechnic’s new 20+-million-dollar Student Accommodation Village is literally about to be rammed home!

Ground stabilisation for the 231 bed facility starts Friday at 9am. The section on Union Street has been cleared over the past week, and the heavy drill rig moves in tomorrow morning. It will create stone column foundations by ramming stone chipping rocks into the ground to form pillars. (It’s big and photogenic!)

Otago Polytechnic Chief Executive, Phil Ker, is thrilled the project has started. “This is the first fully owned Otago Polytechnic student residence. It will provide top class accommodation and has many sustainability features. It’s terrific to see the process underway” he says.

The Otago Polytechnic Student Village will include single dormitory rooms, studios and four-bedroom apartments. All meals will be provided for dormitory residents.

The building also has the construction industry talking. It will be New Zealand’s largest structure of its type.

Naylor Love Construction, the main contractor, will use a relatively new material called cross laminated timber (CLT). This is the generic name given to structural building panels made from wood elements glued together in layers. It’s the first time CLT will be used in Dunedin and it will be the tallest and largest (by volume) CLT building in New Zealand.

Project Manager, Sam Cadden from Logic Group, is proud to be involved with the delivery of the Otago Polytechnic’s vision. “This innovative construction will set new standards of sustainability within the industry” he says.

Building will start in January 2017 once the foundations are poured. It will be finished prior to January 31st 2018, in perfect time for the students to arrive.

-ENDS-

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