CSP’s Nu-Guard® PVB® Steel Guardrail completes seismic protection measures at a Wellington college

Reducing the risks posed by future earthquakes, referred to as seismic protection, has been at the forefront of reviews by asset owners and organisations around the country since the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch five years ago.

With Wellington being a seismic hot spot, in 2011 the Ministry of Education (MoE) reviewed the safety of many of the schools in the area and deemed the 90 year-old main classroom block of Wellington East Girls College as vulnerable, closing it down until further notice. In 2015 the MoE unveiled plans for the old block to be rebuilt whilst retaining the historic façade.

The improvements also included the replacement of a seismically unstable carpark with an engineered fill bank that provides additional land for the school along with improved sunlight and amenity to Wellington College below. To complete the safety works CSP’s Nu-Guard® PVB® Steel Guardrail system was specified to safeguard vehicles and pedestrians from the steep new embankment.

Tim Asby, the Project Architect from Opus explained, “Another bank on the site was deemed an earthquake risk and so was being cut back with the material from the cut reused within the site to create new flat land and the engineered fill bank. This new land meant there was no need to provide a new expensive car deck and solved the problem of what to do with the 12,000m³ of cut rock which otherwise would have had to be transported through a built up residential area and disposed of off site. This was by far the best solution for the environment and provided a win-win solution for the Ministry and both schools.”

With the new school road and parking widened, how to make it safe for cars and pedestrians was the next problem to solve. CSP’s Nu-Guard® PVB® Steel Guardrail system provided a good, simple and functional solution being an integrated vehicle and pedestrian barrier.

With the sharp drop of the embankment below and the gradient of the road quite steep, the task of measuring and fitting the sections of pedestrian barrier onto the Nu-Guard® PVB® barrier was a challenge. “With all the drops and curves in the road CSP and Len Woodman from Askew Contracting, the installer, did a very good job,” says Matt Turnbull, Site Manager from Naylor Love Construction. “It looks pretty smart.”