Santa Sophia Catholic College tops-out in record time

Buildcorp has officially completed the final concrete pours across the highest floors of five education buildings that form the $152m Santa Sophia Catholic College at Box Hill.

After seven months on site, the project team commemorated the milestone by hosting a ‘topping-out ceremony’ with our Clients from the Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta and project partners TSA, BVN and Northrop.

L-R: Santa Sophia Catholic College principal Mark De Vries, students Vito Galati and Jessica Boland, Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta Executive Director Greg Whitby and Buildcorp Managing Director Tony Sukkar AM.

Building out the structures of these five buildings, each up to six stories high, in this short time fame has been made possible by a comprehensive prefabrication strategy.

A significant amount of the building materials are being manufactured offsite, using Building Information Modelling (BIM) to de-risk design clashes. A key component of this is the joinery from partner Euroline who is manufacturing 90% of their materials offsite in their factory.

The team so far have delivered over 55 concrete pours totaling 10,000m3 in concrete, erected over 1050tonnes of structural steel thanks to the help of over 1,342 workers.

Project innovation wasn’t just in prefabrication but also in safety. The staircases were assembled offsite with treads and handrails added before they were installed via a crane. This reduced a 20 day stair install down to just half a day while also improving safety risk management with the final handrails in place from day one.

Buildcorp Managing Director Tony Sukkar AM said: “This achievement in prefabrication is game-changing for industry collaboration. The strategy has also enabled a shorter build time while increasing quality control and safety.

“The project has created much opportunity with over 1,300 workers inducted and the first tranches of apprentices trained through the CathWest Innovation College starting their apprenticeships on site with our subcontractor partners.”

With high enrolment demand in Sydney’s rapidly growing North-West, Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta Executive Director Greg Whitby is thrilled that the new school will be ready to welcome local families in the very near future. 

“We cannot wait for this innovative new school to start serving this thriving community in one of the fastest growing regions in Sydney,” said Greg.

The project is on track to complete in August 2021.