Highbrook Developments and Goodman NZ Limited engaged MSC Consulting Group as structural and civil design engineers for construction of a new facility to provide New Zealand Post with a new Auckland operations centre.
The CourierPost complex incorporates 19,450m2 of warehouse and 2400m2 of office space on two floors. The structure comprises Steltech portal frames at approximately 11m centres with a total span of 123m supported only at midspan with a ridge beam supported on columns at every second grid. This provided large areas free of columns to house a complex system of mail sorting conveyors and courier van manoeuvring.
The architect (Williams Architects) designed outward sloping portal legs, an unusual feature requiring careful detailing of concrete panel wall cladding. The client required a joint-free floor slab in the warehouse; this was provided using a post tensioned slab detailed as six separate panels tied together at the internal joints but free to move at the perimeter.
