Project Details

Construction of the ACT’s temporary COVID-19 Surge Centre was completed on Garran Oval on 15th May 2020, just five weeks from the project’s start date. Local company Aspen Medical, was contracted by the ACT Government to build and operate the 51-bed / 200 staff facility in early April when concerns were high that the current hospital system would be overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases if the virus spread through the Canberra population.

Aspen Medical approached Manteena Commercial to see if they could manage the construction of the facility within five weeks. “Of course. Of course we can” said Rod Mitton, Project Director at Manteena Commercial. Manteena then quickly reached out to long-time partner, Austruss to see if they were on board to build the steel frames.

Working with a 2D drawing of the proposed floor plan, Austruss worked closely with Manteena to design the 51-bed medical structure. With such a limited time to develop a design for the building, Austruss knew that design flexibility was going to be key to the success of the build.

“I made the wall frames telescopic so that they could be extended and decreased as needed. That then meant they could infill different door formats into each frame and slide the door the way that they wanted by just screwing it off where they wanted it once onsite.”

Andrew Fowler, Owner and Managing Director, Austruss Pty Ltd

Austruss was given the go ahead from Manteena on the Tuesday prior to Easter and delivered the first frames to the site on Easter Sunday, thanks to the employees at Austruss committing to working through the weekend for this important cause. Says Mr Fowler, “We are all incredibly proud as a business that we’re involved with a project that is trying to help people.”

The facility has been built using prefabricated wall frames and roof trusses made from TRUECORE^® steel, that were manufactured off-site by Austruss. No other materials for the framing were considered. Says Mr Mitton, “We didn’t have any time to explore other options and quite frankly we just knew that the product was right for this project and that’s proven to be the case.”

Outcomes

This project was another success for both Austruss and Manteena who have worked on many projects together since Austruss opened their doors 17 years ago. Says Mr Fowler, “We’ve had a longstanding relationship with Manteena. It comes down to the speed of trust. If you trust people you can get a lot done incredibly quickly.” And the unique circumstances of this project just further cemented their working relationship. “It just adds a new level of trust between both parties,” says Mr Fowler.

Mr Mitton praised Mr Fowler and the Austruss team. “Andrew’s very inventive and if you have an idea or a need, he will come up with a solution. We knew that if Andrew committed to the project, then he would deliver.”

The facility was completed within the 5-week timeframe on 15th May 2020. To ensure maximum mileage the team designed the structure in such a way that it can be packed up into 40-foot containers once it’s no longer needed and transported elsewhere. “It’s designed to be reused again,” says Mr Fowler. “And we complied not just to a temporary design. It can be classed as a permanent building from a structural point of view.” Adding to this, the structure is also built to cyclone standards to account for the helicopter landing deck near the hospital.

When reflecting on the project, and the important part that Austruss played in preparing for a public health emergency, Mr Fowler said, “It always comes down to us having confidence in the products we use. If we didn’t have confidence in TRUECORE^® steel to be available and be consistent through the design phase, then we couldn’t have been confident with what we were going to deliver. The consistency of the product and it being readily available and ready to go here in Australia is an important attribute for us.”