Benjamin Davis, Domtec International, USA, details how Holcim New Zealand set
out to design and build two bulk cement storage domes in New Zealand.
I
n 2013 Holcim New Zealand (Holcim), now a member
of LafargeHolcim, set out to design and build two
bulk cement storage domes in New Zealand. Their
thorough evaluation of various types of storage
structures resulted in selecting concrete domes. Holcim
embarked on a quest to first select an engineering
firm, a general contractor, and eventually a dome
supplier. Beca was selected as the engineer, and Downer
Group (Downer) as the general contractor. Straight
away this team embarked on an intense search to
identify the right dome building contractor. Telephone
conversations, video conference calls, air form samples,
marketing pieces and iterations of the proposals flew
through air and cyberspace culminating in Holcim and
their design build team visiting various prospective
dome builder’s installations, main offices, and their
engineers. Four dome builders from around the world
were thoroughly considered and evaluated. The criteria
compared included the companies’ respective health
and safety, design, construction and quality. In the end,
Domtec was chosen as the preferred dome vendor in
a ‘Best for Project’ approach (Downer Group, 2014) to
build two 30 000 t cement storage domes, one to be
built on the North Island and one on the South Island.
Engineering and preconstruction
Holcim New Zealand’s headquarters are located on
the South Island, in Christchurch. They are no strangers
to earthquakes as New Zealand is located on the
Ring of Fire, a 40 000 km geographic horse-shoe shaped
area that includes a string of 452 volcanoes, which
make up 75% of the active volcanoes on earth and 90%
of all earthquakes. (National Geographic, 2016). New
Zealand alone records about 14 000 earthquakes each
year, but most them are never felt (Science Learning
Hub, 2014). The memories of the 7.1 magnitude quake
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