Since its construction in 2015, Greenwich Gardens on Auckland’s North Shore has offered a full range of premium accommodation options for older New Zealanders. In 2019, this popular village expanded to meet the growing demand for vibrant and friendly retirement living. Impressed by DGE’s work on the original build, Metlifecare invited them back to help with the new phase.

The challenge: 
To undertake the full electrical fit-out of an extension to an already-occupied retirement village.

More than a simple expansion, this huge job required all of the unique electrical requirements of a retirement village to be installed and connected within a tight timeframe. This needed to be done while navigating a high amount of construction traffic on the busy village driveway and ensuring there were no interruptions to the section of Greenwich Gardens that was already fully operational. With a mixture of elderly residents, village staff, and site workers coming and going all day, safety was paramount.

The scope: 
To install all the new electrical services and connect them to the original system.

The new section of Greenwich Gardens comprised four separate five-storey buildings. Due to the tight timeframe, these were constructed two at a time, which meant DGE had teams working in tandem to install the cabling and fixtures for 24 apartments per building and connect them back to the original circuitry, including connections to the emergency nurse call system. 

The solution:
Communicating, planning, working efficiently, and making sure safety and quality were never compromised, despite the tight schedule.

DGE used their years of experience working on large-scale commercial projects to ensure that they kept in close touch with the developers and were proactive about managing timeframes and mitigating any potential issues. All the new services needed to be connected to Greenwich Gardens’ specialised 1600AMP mains switchboard, so DGE brought in their most experienced contractors to handle the work.

The outcome:
Stages 9 and 10 of Greenwich Gardens were completed on time and defect-free.

Metlifecare were extremely impressed with the expertise, knowledge, attention to detail and tenacity that DGE demonstrated during both phases of this enormous project. DGE continues to look after the ongoing maintenance needs of Greenwich Gardens, ensuring the residents have safe, reliable systems powering their homes.