Wellington Children’s Hospital - a different approach to a seismic restraint project

Abstract

The seismic restraint design for non-structural elements in the new, Importance Level 3, Wellington Childrens Hospital building utilised a considered and efficient design approach that minimise the number of seismic restraints required through coordination and the use of suspended cradles in congested areas. Through a coordinate design and documentation process, with one BIM specialist who modelling all the services and seismic restraints, it was possible to fully coordinate the design across this project. The significant reduction in the number of restraints achieved a more reliable seismic restraint design with a significant reduction in risk to performance due to clashes or compromise needing to be made during construction. The suspended cradles were installed in advance of services being installed, unlike the more traditionally approach where seismic restraints are installed post the services installation. The coordinated design was estimated by the contractor to have taken several months off the construction period. The modelled cradles were used to prepare shop drawings which added further efficiencies. This project is an example of how considered seismic designed combined with accurate modelling can achieve a greater performance reliability while saving considerable construction time and cost. This seismic restraint design model could be utilised on future significant IL3 and IL4 projects.