Killarney Memorial Aged Care has been undergoing significant renovations and expansion. Our team has been providing the Civil, Structural and Hydraulic design engineering, as well as providing the Project Management for the design and construction phase.
This project is a six stage project with a combination of renovations to existing buildings, and construction of new buildings. Construction of stages 2 and 3 was completed in July and delivered a new 2 storey building. The lower level is 1290m2 consisting of car parks, kitchen, laundry, offices and staff rooms. The upper level is 1534m2 and delivers 33 resident rooms.
The building is split level and partially cut into a hill requiring innovative engineering in the lower level retention. Our team had to consider column placement to maximise the number of carparks in the lower level while also providing an economical suspended slab.
Our team faced some challenges with reactivity of the soil on site. The soil is extremely reactive and our engineers had to detail the slab design in such a way that it would not be affected by ground movement. Our team determined a suspended slab would not only provide the ideal solution, but also future proofs the site – The suspended slab was detailed to allow changes in plumbing in the future, which can often occur in healthcare facilities.
There were additional challenges with regards to drainage and onsite treatment. The existing facilities use onsite treatment. With the increase in residents, a larger onsite treatment facility was required. Our team researched a number of treatment systems to identify a facility that was compact in size. The system selected is widely used in Europe and treats large amounts of non-standard effluent waste. This was particularly important as the waste from aged care facilities often contains larger quantities of medication. Should the onsite facility not treat this waste effectively, solid waste and/or waste high in medication, will be delivered to the Council plant. Waste containing medication can damage the biodiversity of Council’s discharge facilities, in this case the wetlands.
The site also contains a pump station to assist in pumping the waste from the kitchen and laundry to the treatment plant. Large tanks are also on site allowing rainwater to be used in toilets and for garden irrigation.
The most recent extensions for Killarney Memorial Aged Care were completed in July, and future extension work is planned for this growing Aged Care facility. This facility is a fantastic centre for the community and we’ve been proud to be a part of their expansion.