Airlie Beach Hotel – Cyclone Reinstatement Works

The Airlie Beach Hotel is located in the heart of Airlie Beach in Queensland’s Whitsunday region. With a prime waterfront location on the Esplanade, the hotel was unfortunately extensively damaged as a result of Tropical Cyclone Debbie in March 2017.
Rectifying compliance issues to get the hotel operational

Once the clean-up from the cyclone was underway, it was critical to get the hotel fully operational again as soon as possible. Preliminary site inspections indicated that both the mechanical and electrical systems throughout the hotel and ancillary buildings including (a bottle shop, bar and motel) were severely damaged.

The main challenge faced was that the existing site services were not only water damaged but they also had extensive compliance issues that needed to be rectified in order to progress reinstatement works. To ensure this happened smoothly, coordination of the various service providers who would be looking after the different parts of the project was critical.

Mechanical and Electrical Services

DMA Engineers was engaged by Lend Lease to complete the electrical and mechanical services for the repair and reinstatement project, working collaboratively with Advanced Buildings as part of an insurance claim for the hotel. The services we provided included:

  • Investigating, designing and updating the original Electrical Design Drawings that were originally completed by DMA in 1999.
  • Providing compliance advice to ensure that the reinstatement works could be certified.
  • Redesign of the Mechanical systems throughout the hotel that were extensively damaged.

Preliminary Site investigations and construction phase support was also provided to highlight challenges and to provide solutions throughout the project.

Compliance issues were the biggest challenge we faced that we overcome by providing timely and cost-effective advice.

As a result of the work we undertook and the advice we provided the client, we were able to quickly close out site issues as they arose, undertake site inspections to ensure a like-for-like solution was reinstated but also met current standards, provide budgetary reviews throughout the project as well as document buildable solutions that were cost effective for our clients end client.

As a result, the works could proceed and it enabled the hotel to resume trade to various elements of the site to suit re-opening times and special events.

Client: Lend Lease

Location: Airlie Beach

Sector: Hospitality

Services: Electrical & Mechanical

Status: In Construction

Project value: $10M

Year completed: 2017/2018

For more information on this project, please contact us.