GOVT. LIFE BUILDING

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30038, 24 January 1963, Page 12

GOVT. LIFE BUILDING

Work On Roof Structures

The main structural work up to and including the ninth floor has been completed on the new £700,000 Government Life Building in Cathedral square. The contractors yesterday reported good progress and do not anticipate any difficulty in completing the work within the contract time.

The nine-storey building has 96,500 ft office floor space. Work has now started on the penthouse and caretaker's flat on the roof. Also under construction are a room for the lift machinery and a 64ft by 40ft boiler house, which will contain three boilers.

These rooms on the roof rise to 30 feet above the ninth storey and make the total height of the building 132 feet. The boiler house is unusual in that it is sited at the top of the building instead of in the basement, and it makes provision for an extension to the whole heating system. The boilers will be lifted up to the roof in sections, along with the lift machinery, before the surmounting crane is dismantled.

High-speed Lifts

The general contractors are working to a careful plan of sequences for the various trades involved in finishing each floor. Providing this work is adhered to, they do not expect any difficulty in completing the work within the contract time. At this stage there are about six subcontractors operating, and all are working to strict sequences. About 100 men are on the job. A sub-contractor has just begun the work of installing four high-speed lifts which will be the most modem and fastest in Christchurch. Holding 13 persons each, they are arranged together in. the centre of the building and will be fitted with automatic traffic analysers—a device which allows the lifts to automatically select the floor with the greatest demand. The lifts, which are of English manufacture, are expected to take 12 months to install.