NSW building commissioner issues stop work order on Illawarra apartment construction site

David Chandler says it will hard to regain his trust in the project. (ABC Illawarra: Kelly Fuller)

The New South Wales building commissioner has issued a stop-work order at a Wollongong construction site after structural defects were discovered in a 149-unit apartment block.

Commissioner David Chandler said the prohibition order followed the detection of a number of issues in the last few years.

“I was not satisfied that there was an adequate level of engineering support for that work,” he said.

“Then I said, ‘We’re not going to sleepwalk into this bloody tragedy any further — let’s stop.’

“Now we sit down and we say, ‘Convince me with what you are going to do to get to the end of this job and I may or may not lift the prohibition order.'”

The structure at 373 Crown Street is comprised of two towers — one is eight storeys high and the other 16.

$37m spent on remediation

Mr Chandler said the site was first drawn to his attention in 2021, when problems in the basement were detected.

He said inspectors then identified the need for additional columns on several floors, including 17 in the basement to bear the load of the building.

Recently inspectors found the post tensioning cables had not been installed properly.

Mr Chandler said the builder had already spent $37 million on remediation and would be speaking with the financier about the situation next week.

Fifty per cent of the apartments have been sold and deposits are being held in a trust account.

Speaking at an Urban Development Institute of Australia event in Wollongong on Thursday, Mr Chandler expressed his frustration with the project.

“I just don’t know how this building is ever going to redeem my trust,” he said.

The developer and construction group have been contacted for comment.

Commission ‘out to lunch’

Mr Chandler told the function that before his appointment to the role in 2019, the Building Commission had been “out to lunch” in the Illawarra.

“We are seeing in a very high level of defects right across the Illawarra,” he said.

“What we are seeing in the Illawarra is what you get when you do not regulate.

“We have been a metro focused player.”

Mr Chandler said a recent inspection of a townhouse project in Shellharbour revealed that 325 out of 374 houses had serious waterproofing defects.

“That is not on, an 80 per cent defect rate, so there is real need for us to be down here,” he said.

He said there were about 4,000 construction projects underway in the Illawarra and as many as 20 per cent were considered risky.

Push for regional presence

Mr Chandler said he had plans to expand the commission and establish permanent offices in the Hunter, Mid North Coast, and Northern Rivers.

He said last week that he had presented a case arguing for a regional presence to the NSW Treasury.

“We are statewide regulator and I think we have not really been performing that role until recent times,” Mr Chandler said.

He told attendees at today’s event that he was impressed that another project, the Wonder apartments at 28-30 Young Street, was progressing well with intensive remediation.

Mr Chandler said the focus was on making the site safe and conducting detailed investigations into past work.