Rawlinsons – A RIB CostX Case Study

Rawlinsons’ role on the Cathedral Reinstatement project has been to advise the client, and wider project team, on all aspects of cost and procurement. As a charitable project, cost is high on the client’s agenda, and Rawlinsons have provided regular estimate updates, monthly costs reports and advice on value engineering to help the project team make informed decisions and deliver as efficiently as possible. 

Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement 

Client: Rawlinsons 
Product used: CostX 
Project: Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement 
Value: NZD$150m 
Timeframe: March 2019 – December 2027 

Client’s Requirements 

The iconic Christ Church Cathedral is the seat of the Anglican faith in Christchurch. It has been a key part of the city’s identity for 150 years. Severely damaged in the devastating Christchurch earthquakes, it is being reinstated to once again take a central place in Cathedral Square, where it will welcome all faiths, and breathe new life and vibrancy into the heart of the city. 

As a comprehensive rebuild of a 150-year-old, earthquake-damaged building, the project has complexities in many areas. Coordination of construction planning for safe work execution, engineering design, architecture, heritage considerations, and programme analysis all make this a complicated project. 

Due to the uncertain nature of what may be encountered, the team has taken a collaborative approach. Overall, this effort has resulted in the most efficient design process, giving greater certainty that the reinstatement solution can be built safely and efficiently, and in line with an agreed sequence. 

Image courtesy of Warren and Mahoney Architects © 

Rawlinsons’ Contribution 

Rawlinsons’ role on the Cathedral Reinstatement project has been to advise the client, and wider project team, on all aspects of cost and procurement. As a charitable project, cost is high on the client’s agenda, and Rawlinsons have provided regular estimate updates, monthly costs reports and advice on value engineering to help the project team make informed decisions and deliver as efficiently as possible. 

The project architect and engineer worked together to produce a detailed digital model of the Cathedral using LiDAR scanning technology. As Rawlinsons was one of the first adopters of CostX in New Zealand, it was a relatively straight forward process to import both models into CostX and then extract the quantities needed for the estimate. 

Rawlinsons have also been working closely with the main contractor, providing detailed schedules of all the unreinforced masonry, which will be used to assess the time needed to repair the stonework and provide sensible targets for the masons as the project moves forwards. 

Working on such a complex, heritage project has proved very challenging, but the whole team, using modern technology, has worked collaboratively and achieved some very challenging milestones to date. The project has almost finished stabilising the damaged building and has now entered the next phase of superstructure strengthening, with a target of completing all works by the end of 2027. 

Making the Difference 

RIB CostX has helped to process a multitude of interdependent data through its system for this cost sensitive project, which has greatly helped efficiency while reducing errors and increasing flexibility. 

The geometry of the new base isolated foundations was very complex, and the ability to import the structural model and then create Model Maps to extract quantities within CostX has been invaluable and would have been much harder to achieve using 2D drawings. Rawlinson also made extensive use of CostX’s supported rate build-ups, working from first principles, and then using the data to refine their estimates. This in turn is helping them to easily update costs in line with escalations as the project progresses.