Latest news with #BreenConstruction
Otago Daily Times
19-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
South well represented in project awards
PHOTO: SUPPLIED Breen Construction has won the supreme under $10 million award at the 2025 Commercial Project Awards for the new Scapegrace distillery in Central Otago (pictured above). Judges said it stood out for its meticulous blend of architectural impact with precision-engineered processing facilities. The judges particularly praised the company's ability to deliver the project to a high standard in harsh weather conditions and under budgetary constraints, made possible through its process engineering approach. Other southern winners included Cook Brothers for Ayrburn Arrowtown (commercial project $10m-$25m value award and tourism and leisure project category winner), and Calder Stewart Construction for Te Pou ō Mata-Au Clutha District War Memorial and Community Centre (civic project category winner).
RNZ News
13-05-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
First signs of life at Dunedin hospital site
By Matthew Littlewood of Representatives from potential contracting firms visited the Dunedin hospital in-patient site. Photo: ODT / Gerard O'Brien Is this the first sign of life from the previously abandoned new Dunedin hospital project's inpatient building? Representatives from potential contracting firms, including Naylor Love, Breen Construction, Ceres and Leighs Construction, were spotted on the site on Tuesday. Tender documents obtained by the Otago Daily Times said it was part of a debrief for the firms, as tenders for the substructure works on the inpatient building were expected to be issued in late June. Work on the actual substructure is expected to begin in mid-September. Former head of the emergency department Dr John Chambers said while it might look like something was happening, it would be months before anything substantial occurred. "It will take some time analysing all the prospective tender applicants ... but at the same time, the ministry will have to have their say. So the whole thing seems very bureaucratic. "It's hellishly slow." In January, Health Minister Simeon Brown announced the government would build the new Dunedin hospital at the former Cadbury's site for $1.88 billion. It came after several months of deliberating over whether it would build a scaled-back version or retrofit the existing Dunedin Hospital. Recently, the ODT reported the number of ICU beds had been cut back from 30 to 20 upon opening, while the number of mental health for older people beds had been cut back from 24 to eight upon opening. Dr Chambers said so much was still unknown. "I can clearly understand the frustration of your readers. "They start to believe that it's never going to happen. I guess it's the early stages of the planning process. So we must be talking weeks to months." When the ODT asked about the nature of the meeting at the site, a Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora spokesperson said: "As with any build, site visits have and will continue to occur". This story was first published by the Otago Daily Times.
Otago Daily Times
10-05-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Hospice hub one-stop shop for North Otago
Otago Community Hospice communications adviser Kelly Meade (left) and retail development manager Cat Callanan are excited for the Oamaru hub to reopen next week. PHOTO: NIC DUFF The hub is back. Otago Community Hospice will reopen its Oamaru hub on Monday. The building on Thames Highway will house the hospice shop, accommodating two full-time care co-ordinators as well as a social worker twice a week and a councillor for a full week, once a month. It will also have two palliative care doctors and a residential care nurse visit regularly. The hospice has three night carers in North Otago and can also run education programmes for carers. Otago Community Hospice chief executive Ginny Green is excited the hub is reopening. While all of their services had still been available with the hub closed, it now became a "one-stop-shop" for North Otago, she said. "It means that our clinical team are all co-located so there's no mucking around with being in different offices. "Up until now, we've had to be all over the show so it's just pulling everyone back in together. "It's a destination shop for the people of North Otago." The hub was closed in 2023, after rotten floorboards were discovered. What was originally intended to be a quick fix, turned into a long-term problem as almost the entirety of the flooring was rotten. That has now been fixed and the building is in tip-top shape for Monday's reopening, which also coincides with Hospice Awareness Week. Breen Construction did the work. Otago Community Hospice has 23 patients in North Otago and averages five new referrals per month. Their services range from in-home palliative care to working alongside Oamaru Hospital and other residential care facilities to offer its services. Approximately only 15% of patients require a stay in the inpatient unit, so having a centralised hub in Oamaru allows easier access for all of their services. The Hospice Shop is also an important way for the organisation to raise funds as almost 50% of their funding comes through fundraising. A grand reopening is being planned for next month.
Otago Daily Times
06-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Work ‘finally' begins to aid overfull school
Kate Mansfield. Photo: Jules Chin Glenavy School has had a burgeoning roll due to immigration for dairy farming over the last four years. As a result it ''finally'' has new ''modernised and upgraded'' buildings for teaching and learning support. Three existing Ministry of Education prefabricated buildings based at Waitaki Girls' High School were moved to the rural primary school last October and a recent ministry tender awarded to Breen Construction for nearly $750,000 has meant reconstruction and refurbishment of the new teaching and multi-use spaces began this month. Kate Mansfield started in her role as principal of the school nine years ago when the roll was 65 and there were four classrooms. The roll is now 125, and space has been at a premium for not only the pupils but the school staff. She was elated construction was ''finally'' under way. ''It is really exciting. ... We have had to fight for everything we can get and my role growth is not just overnight, it's been going for a long time.'' Mrs Mansfield said finding space at the old school that has served its community for over 120 years, has been ''diabolical''. They have had to be ''quite creative'' by using the school library and a community building on the school grounds, that is funded by the school board, for teaching spaces, she said. ''Initially the ministry said it would just be for a short period of time. ''But we've had that class in the library since mid-term in 2023, so it's been a good year and a-half.'' With the school doubling in size since Mrs Mansfield tenure, there has also only been ''standing room only'' for some in the staffroom, the number of staff growing from eight to 25. Mrs Mansfield told the ministry it had become a ''health and safety'' issue for her staff and she was pleased one of the three buildings would be a multi-use space that could function as a staff room, and a break-out and space for a ''learning co-ordinator''. The two other buildings will be dedicated classrooms. Seventy percent of the pupils had English as a second language, with a large Filippino community, she said. ''The need for breakout spaces where teacher aides and teachers can take children away and just give them those small group supports and we just haven't had that space here.'' Mrs Mansfield said 99% of the families in the school community came from dairying which creates a flux in the roll, with people moving in and out of the area. The expected roll at the end of the year was 135, she said. Breen Construction is contracted to finish the classrooms by term 3. - By Jules Chin
