According to John McLaughlin , contracts director at Grinaker-LTA Building Inland , demolishing the roof and installing it at a higher level was one of the biggest construction challenges . “ Casting the upper level slabs over the glass ‘ eye ’, and demolishing and rebuilding the new lift shafts to meet the target completion date of this entrance ( five ), were also huge challenges from a construction point of view ,” he adds , noting that the ‘ eye ’ skylight is the main feature of this phase of Grinaker-LTA ’ s work at Eastgate , and its casting was very complex in design and execution .
“ We cast the beams and slab and supported the formwork over an existing structure with no back-propping , and an external specialist
was contracted to design the steel I-beam support to carry all the wet loads imposed . The removal of the old lifts and the creation of bigger lifts over the existing food courts was a particularly testing portion of the contract , mainly because it took place over an operational shopping mall .”
Conclusion Eastgate ’ s new lifestyle extension is set to give further longevity to the shopping centre , which is somewhat of a landmark in the area . Pearce concludes : “ It has been exciting to see the project unfold and to see what was previously an internalised shopping centre being opened up to the outside .”
Eastgate Shopping Centre 295