Cost of topsoil project

Press, 8 April 1987, Page 8

Cost of topsoil project

PA Wellington About $40,000 has been spent in airlifting topsoil up to the top three levels of the new State Services Commission building in the capital for its planter box gardens, the “Evening Post” reported yesterday.

It was more economical to get a helicopter to lift the soil than to use other means, staff at the Minis-

try of Works’ Porirua office said.

The commission’s secretary, Mr Miles Middlemass, said the airlift was several weeks ago and the planter boxes were part of the building’s design and within the contract. They were similar to garden boxes installed at the neighbouring new National Library Building. Staff began moving into

the buildings last, August with the shift completed in February. The manager of the Government Property Ser : vices Corporation, Mr Nigel Saunders-Francis, said that using helicopters was the cheapest way to get soil to the upper levels. The building had been built by the Ministry of Works. It had sought quotations for getting the soil

to the planter boxes and some methods would have cost as much as $BO,OOO. Although the building was only five storeys high, it would have been impracticable for men to carry the soil through a building filled with working people, said Mr Saun-ders-Francis. The soil was “the finishing touch” to the building, he said.