The Pacifica Apartments complex is one of Auckland’s highest residential building projects towering above the CBD landscape at 178m tall with the structure alone valued at $42 million.

Client: Hengyi Pacific (NZ) Limited

Subcontractor: Dominion Constructors Ltd

Product Supplied: 17,000m3 – Jump Form construction method for 57 floors

Upon completion, The Pacifica became NZ’s highest residential building towering above the CBD landscape at 178m tall.

The first 6 levels comprise a 41-suite boutique hotel and high-end retail on the Commerce Street frontage & a 6 level valet car park at the rear serviced by two car lifts; the tower which accommodates 279 apartments sits on the podium above this. The building offers residents facilities which include 24-hour concierge, resident lounges, a lap pool, sauna, steam room, spa, gym, media room, library and barbecue terrace.

In 2023, the project team responsible for Pacifica Tower took home the Nauhria Premier Concrete Award – the top honour at the Concrete NZ Nauhria Awards.

What is Jump Form construction?

To construct the 57 floors a jump form systems was used as it offers higher levels of safety and productivity in comparison to other methods. Jump form are constructed in a staged process and comprise of working platforms for cleaning/fixing of the form work, steel fixing and concreting. The form work supports itself on the concrete cast earlier so does not rely on support or access from other parts of the building or permanent works.

What was Allied Concrete’s involvement in the project?

Each of the 57 floors have over 150m3 of special concrete including low shrinkage mixes with high pumpability used for the core and suspended floors, stairs and columns sections. Each floor has had an average turn around time of 6-7 days equating to many long hours and late nights to ensure timelines were upheld. The jumpform is self-sufficient with a concrete boom pump attached to the jumpform for all concrete placing and a formwork hoist integrated into the screens for the movement of formwork and materials between the floors and welfare facilities.

 How did Allied Concrete ensure they were providing an exceptional service?

Allied Concrete ensured that each concrete pour underwent a 24 hour, 48 hour, 7 day and 28 day cylinder test would enable regular reporting and illustrate the quality and strength of our product. It was also unique to manage the slump due to the pump being on the bottom floor and having to be pump up to 57 floors against gravity causing the mix to lose a little bit of slump the higher elevation it travelled making the technical aspect of the job challenging but pleased the project has been completed to a high standard.

“The entire team did a fantastic job which made my job a lot easier”

Sammy Mensah – Allied Concrete Technician

How were the deliveries managed in a confined and complex work site?

There was the uncommon functionality of an onsite turn table to allow trucks to drive in nose first, spin onto the discharge hopper and drive out nose first introduced for speed of delivery and safety of public and workers. The logistics of delivery included; pours beginning at 6.00am with the plant preparing many hours before this, advanced traffic management for peak traffic times managed excellently by our dispatch team, a technician on site for nearly every pour, regular onsite meetings reviewing mixes especially over the summer months when we supplied low shrink concrete and extensive use of the Allied Concrete My Concrete Application for daily pour management contributing to Allied Concrete being the concrete supplier of choice for such an comprehensive project.

Dominion Constructors Ltd | constructors.co.nz

ICON Construction | Icon.co

Hengyi Pacific (NZ) Ltd | Hengyi.com

Pacifica Apartments | The Pacifica 

Jump Form information | mpa The Concrete Centre