News
Working with recycled bricks ‘a big jigsaw’
Contractors involved in Invercargill’s inner-city development started to work on a big puzzle yesterday.
Twenty-two thousand recycled bricks and material saved from a range of demolished buildings will be reused as part of the design of the project.
Yesterday, contractors Michael Krevalek and Amy Ewing started to place some of the bricks to construct an internal wall in one of the retail lanes.
"There are thousands of bricks and each of them are of different sizes so the challenge is to merge all in a way to make them look nice," Ms Ewing said.
"It is almost like a big jigsaw."
She said they would work in an area that would cover about 200sq m with the bricks.
"I don’t know how long it will take to do that but it will be very cool when ready."
Project manager Geoff Cotton said the $165million Invercargill Central Ltd project — which has involved the demolition of an entire city block to make way for a development comprising retail, food and beverage, and office spaces — was progressing well and the first stage of the project would open on June 10.
"The weather has been good in Invercargill which is great for us. And we are Covid-19-free ... [and] hope to keep that way.
"The project is tracking well and as programmed," he said.
He said another milestone was reached in the project last week with the handover for fit-out of the site to be occupied by Farmers.
Contractors also installed a glass roof in the retail lane which runs parallel to Esk St and hoped to bring some natural light into the development.
