Watts & Hughes were engaged as the main contractors to complete the new build of a Taco Bell Restaurant within Harvard Park near the Christchurch Airport. The new restaurant was a single storey, 233sqm timber structure with supporting structural steelwork to canopy and internal framing, with 760sqm of exterior works including the building and other exterior works.

The building platform was left to level for us to come to site and install the in slab drainage and services, following on to a 500mm high pod foundation/slab (raft foundation). The external envelope of the building comprises of long run roofing, aluminium exterior joinery, signage/branding around the building at a high level and a variety of exterior cladding including Cemintel, Dimondek, Polycarb and NuWall.

Some of the structural steel members are exposed at locations such as drive through and main entrance as feature.

The cladding has different heights within elevations along with stepping in and out to denote the change in material. The detailing of interfaces was one of the more challenging aspects of the build requiring several trades to be co-ordinated in order to complete the task.

As with the outside of the building, the interior complemented the variety of finishes by having similar for the fit out. They compromised of painted GIB, wall and floor tiling, Decortech panels, oak panels, joinery to serving counter, metal screens, custom graphics and a terrazite floor. The interior front of house area being approx. 109sqm.

A new separate area for click and collect was introduced for this build, this is mainly used for Uber Eats, and also if there was to be another lockdown, it allows the store to trade with no internal public use of the building.

The area outside the foot print of the building comprises of exposed concrete, concrete drive thru, speaker station with canopy, height restrictor barrier, direction signage, pylon sign, landscaping and road markings.

This was a fast-track project with very little float. The programming was managed on a day-to-day basis using a two week lookahead with weekly coordination meetings with all trades.