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Project Overview

 

Location: King Street, Taradale, Napier

As part of the continued development at Ascot Park Retirement Village in Taradale, several new villas were constructed across the site. The development involved the construction of multiple single-storey residential villas.

Given the site’s known geotechnical conditions and seismic considerations, the foundation system needed to provide reliable performance while remaining efficient to install across multiple builds.

For this stage of the development, the villas were constructed using the QPOD300 foundation system, providing a reinforced raft slab solution suitable for TC2 ground conditions.

Site Challenges

Geotechnical investigation identified the site as being underlain by alluvial sand and silt deposits to depths of approximately 2.0–2.4 m. Key design considerations included:

  • Moderate liquefaction susceptibility

  • Groundwater encountered at approximately 1.4–1.9 m depth.

  • Allowable bearing pressures of approximately 67 kPa with a geotechnical ultimate bearing capacity of 200 kPa across much of the site.

Because of these conditions, foundation options recommended by the geotechnical engineers included reinforced raft systems capable of distributing loads effectively across variable ground.

Villa 11

 

Villa 4

 

Implementation

The villas were constructed using QPOD300 pods, forming a reinforced raft slab designed to perform under TC2 ground conditions.

The system provided:

  • A waffle-style reinforced slab structure, distributing loads efficiently across the building footprint.

  • Reduced excavation compared with deeper foundation systems.

  • Consistent installation across multiple villa builds within the development.

Concrete slabs were constructed using Firth 25 MPa structural concrete. 

 

 

tight schedule.

Results

 

The QPOD300 system enabled the project team to install consistent raft foundations across multiple villas while addressing the geotechnical constraints present at the site.

Key outcomes included:

  • Efficient construction across multiple villa builds

  • A raft foundation system designed to perform under TC2 ground conditions

  • Reliable load distribution across variable ground profiles

  • A foundation solution suited to retirement village construction where repeatable builds are important