Minimum PPE requirements: Steel toes, Hard hat, HiVis, Safety Glasses, Carry Gloves.

With the fast-paced growth of Queenstown Lakes region, the 3-year-old Wakatipu High School is at capacity and requires additional space to accommodate new students in the coming years. The project to expand the existing school will increase the capacity of learning spaces by 600 students and provide a new double court gym which will allow for the increased student body as well as secondary school competitions.

Wakatipu High School was part of the NZ Schools PPP2 project established in 2015 and as such this project is being run under the same Private Public Partnership (PPP) procurement model between the Ministry of Education and Future Schools Partners (FSP) LP.

Southbase Construction has been engaged by Project LP to design and build the expansion works, and Programmed who were already members of the FSP Consortium will include these new spaces in the Asset and Facilities management they provide to the Ministry over the next 22 years.

Southbase is managing the design consultants and ensuring the design meets the MOE Building Design Standards as well as other requirements incorporated by Programmed that directly address lifecycle benefits, safety in maintenance and fit for purpose in relation to the building and grounds. Southbase is utilising BIM modelling and Drone deploy for highly coordinated construction efforts and clash detection.

Enabling works began in August of 2020 and will be handed over in 5 separable portions over the next 2 years with the final completion date in January 2023.

The extension of the school is made up of 2-story, north and south wings extending off the east side of the existing building. Structural steel portal frames make up the primary structure with precast concrete ribs and timber infills to support the first-floor slabs. The look of the existing building will be carried into the extensions with a combination of Nuwall and Trespa cladding. A new double gym is being constructed beside the existing gym near the school’s main entrance. In addition to the extensions there will be modifications to the existing building to enhance various learning spaces such as music, and the hard tech workshops.