More than 85 shipping containers have been pressed into service on site at the $790 million Westfield Newmarket development
The containers in Newmarket are being used for everything from pedestrian walkways around part of the 88,150 sq m site, through to multi-storey container site offices, toilet blocks, and refrigeration.
Royal Wolf is Australasia’s largest supplier of shipping containers and the scale of the Westfield Newmarket project highlights the continued growth of the container hire and sale sector in New Zealand.
“Newmarket is a huge development and although it may not be obvious, the containers play an important role in ensuring the project runs efficiently and smoothly,” says Royal Wolf Executive General Manager Paul Creighton.
“From a workflow and health and safety perspective, the efficiency, strength and ease of installation and use of containers helps create a highly efficient and robust work site which means workers can just get on and get the job done.”
Much of the upgrade of Scentre Group’s Westfield Newmarket shopping centre located at 277 Broadway is shielded from view by containers lining the perimeter of the site as works continue.
A line of 14 double-storey site office containers, complete with walkway balconies connecting each container unit, line one corner of the site where the former Westfield Newmarket – 277 Broadway centre is undergoing a refurbishment and expansion.
Container pedestrian walk ways run down the hill on Mortimer Pass, a main thoroughfare for traffic heading to Newmarket from the Southern Motorway.
Creighton says one of the challenges for contractors on the Newmarket site, and inner city building sites in general, is having enough room to set up site offices and to store equipment.
“Containers are an ideal solution because they can be stacked easily and very quickly to multiple levels on top of each other. It means there is limited disruption around building sites, which are often in high pedestrian areas.”
It’s the largest construction project container specialist Royal Wolf has supplied in New Zealand and its containers will be on site until the project is completed, which is projected to be in the last quarter of 2019.
Key tenants for the new Westfield Newmarket include Farmers, Countdown and Australian department store David Jones, and it will house around 220 new stores, an Events cinema complex, and roof top restaurants and bars.
With growing awareness around the versatility of containers, and ongoing demand in key areas such as construction, storage, and semi-permanent worker accommodation, Royal Wolf has undergone widespread expansion in the last two years and is now in 12 centres around the country.
Creighton says it is relocating its Dunedin and Wellington offices to larger sites to cater for increased demand, and its second largest site in Christchurch is expanding later in the year to provide increased capacity in Canterbury.
“Containers have become a part of the landscape in New Zealand being used for storage through to being widely used in the construction and infrastructure sectors.
“There is huge potential for Royal Wolf to grow and diversify even further as companies and customers start to realise the diverse uses containers can be used for.”
Royal Wolf is the industry leader in the hire, sale and modification of new and refurbished shipping containers, with 22 years’ experience and 38 facilities with 35 Customer Service Centres across Australia and New Zealand.
The company has a customer base of over 22,000, supplying customers each year with containers which are inexpensive, safe, secure, easily transportable and able to be modified with doors, internal walls, windows, electricity, water supply and more.
From portable storage options for consumers, sporting associations, community groups and schools, to accommodation units, mobile exhibitions, retail outlets, offices, kitchens, training facilities and innovative construction projects, experience shows ‘You can do anything in a Royal Wolf’.
Royal Wolf containers can be specified to meet portable storage requirements for general purpose, refrigerated or hazardous goods and are available in a variety of sizes.
The company’s ‘Worksite Range’ includes a selection of shipping containers that are available as a stock item and provide hoardings and gantries, construction site offices, change rooms, first aid rooms and ablution blocks.
The company also has a division focused on the freight sector, providing freight containers for road, rail, removals, bulk commodity, construction and project applications.
The mining, defence and resources sectors have embraced Royal Wolf container solutions as seen by the extensive use of large portable camps and blast resistant buildings.
Royal Wolf was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2011 and currently employs over 260 permanent staff who are dedicated to servicing the needs of customers and delivering container solutions.
