Health and safety a priority in Pegasus town construction

The builders of New Zealand's biggest purpose-built town, Pegasus Town in north Canterbury, are paving the way as role models in health and safety practices, the Department of Labour says.

This week marked the 1000th residential building contractor from the huge project to go through the Department of Labour’s health and safety induction courses.

The Department’s Workplace Services service manager Margaret Radford said the fact that so many Pegasus Town contractors had been through the programme was very significant.

“This is a great achievement. We want to set a benchmark for project safety and work with the lead safety agencies, builders and tradespeople to develop better safety awareness.”

The Department of Labour-run health and safety course is aimed at ensuring all builders and sub-contractors meet the documented minimum standard for safety agreed within the Pegasus Link Up Safety Strategy. The health and safety strategy is a collaboration between the Department of Labour, ACC, SiteSafe, Lucus Safety and the Waimakariri District Council, working closely with the five preferred building companies for Pegasus town: David McGill Builders; Stonewood; Pegasus Property; Mike Greer Homes; and Golden Homes.

Adam Gilmore from Canterbury Metal was the 1000th person to go through the programme.

“Our goal is for no builders to be seriously harmed while working on this construction project,’’ said Ms Radford.

A purpose-built community, 25km north of Christchurch, Pegasus Town is designed to be home to more than 5000 residents. The new town, which includes a wide range of amenities, such as a feature lake and swimming bay, resort hotel and spa, retail and dining/entertainment precincts, as well as a library, community centre, family recreation area, and a retirement village, is well into development.