Christmas deadline is firmly in the minds of contractors working on The Village, a A$160 million mixed residential and retail development at Balgowlah on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

The Village is a mixed-use development that encompasses seven separate buildings with approximately 60 shops, a supermarket and 247 apartments with swimming pool and landscaped podium above carparking for 1,500 vehicles.

The Village embraces a green approach to housing that coincides with its proposed leafy landscaping, the developers claiming to adopt several "sustainable design principles," such as heat recovery systems cross-flow ventilation, independent water harvesting and energy and water efficient appliances and fittings. The developers estimate that these systems will save each unit over 22,000 litres of water per year, as well as 2,600 kg of CO2 for a three-bedroom apartment annually.

Total completion is not scheduled until August 2009, but builder Superior Formwork and other contractors are working to complete the carpark and retail area in time for the 2008 Christmas season. BlueScope Steel's LYSAGHT BONDEK®, a structural decking for concrete slabs, is helping them to meet their deadline.

If you'd like to watch their progress, check out the web cam of the construction site. Though it's not certain whether this is a real-time spy cam or replay of previously filmed activity, but just the same it's rather fun to think that a camera on the top of some building in Australia is panning and tilting at your command.

Superior Formwork's task includes the installation of 40,000 m² of 0.75mm LYSAGHT BONDEK® structural steel formwork.

Workforce numbers at The Village will top 85 on a job which encompasses two parking levels, a retail level, a podium level and eight residential buildings with four to nine levels.

"If we were using conventional formwork we would need up to 130 workers," Superior Formwork Director, Tony Pejkovic said. "If we were using plywood formwork on this job we would be here for three months longer than we will take using BONDEK® sheeting. We are using BONDEK® sheeting in lengths up to 8.15 metres and that is really speeding up the rate at which we can cover the areas we need to achieve."

BlueScope Steel also has worked out a just-in-time delivery schedule that allows the construction to be efficient and faster. "We calculate our requirements two or three days in advance then work with BlueScope Lysaght to arrange delivery as we need it, said Pejkovic. "On a big project like this you have to book the site's tower crane but that hasn't been a problem because the deliveries of BONDEK® sheeting have always been on time. BlueScope Lysaght bundle the material and clearly identify each sling load, so there's no time lost getting the material to where it is needed."

The long lengths of sheeting are easily handled by two men. Said Pejkovic, "There's not a lot of weight to lift. Most of the time they are just sliding the sheets along and they are certainly lighter than plywood formwork."

Superior Formwork has been able to speed up construction without sacrificing quality or increasing costs.

"Our client gets a quality result that is achieved quickly with less people on site than conventional formwork would require. There's less material handling and a generally safer worksite," said Pejkovic. "From our point of view our labour costs are lower and we have much less timber to transport, stack and store between jobs."

Visit The Village.

Key information

Multi-use residential retail	247 apartments, 60 shops
New-build home

Location of steel solutions

Structural Decking

Types of steel used in the building

Long carbon steel