Greenland Australia and Building Commission NSW have played down media reports of concrete performance and structural issues in a Sydney project less than four years after it was constructed.
The nbh project at 23 Halifax Street, Macquarie Park, was constructed in February 2020 by the now disqualified GN Residential Construction Pty Ltd. Greenland Australia, headquartered in Shanghai, was issued with a building work rectification order (BWRO) in October 2023 by Building Commission NSW.
“[It] compromises structural performance and structural adequacy of the concrete slab,” and “this is a defect … that causes or is likely to cause the basement slab to fail, namely, to fracture and collapse, leading to the destruction of the building … or threat of collapse,” ABC News reported the BWRO as saying.
However, David Chandler, NSW Building Commissioner said media reports were “inflated and unfortunate,” with “absolutely no threat to collapse of this building”. The development is part of the Lachlan’s Line precinct of four buildings comprising 900 apartments and a ground floor retail area.
Greenland Australia issued a statement last week saying the issues are “localised in the lower car park levels only and that there is no risk of collapse of the building’s towers. There is no serious damage or serious structural defects at the project, as some media outlets have claimed.”
However, media reports failed to make the connection to NSW Fair Trading’s cancellation of the contractor’s licence in June 2023 at which time the company was permanently disqualified and its company director, Nicholas Kodomichalos, received a 10-year disqualification. These were due to the death of a worker in April 2019 and serious injuries sustained by another, due to perimeter façade scaffolding overloaded by more than 18 tonnes and ties to a corresponding building having been removed.
Greenland Australia has confirmed that no other buildings it has developed are affected.
Image: Greenland Australia.
About the author
Desi Corbett
Desi is our weekly news journalist and the editor of Concrete in Australia magazine for 10 years. She has been heavily involved in all forms of engineering since 2013; part of a 30-year writing career across a range of subjects and media.