Opal Tower is a residential tower located in the suburb of Sydney Olympic Park in the Australian state of New South Wales. It was completed in August 2018. The high-rise residential tower was built by Icon, developed by Ecove and designed by Bates Smart Architects. The building has 392 apartments, with 34 above ground levels and three levels underground. On 24 December 2018 residents had reported loud banging noises, exposed panelling and cracks which mainly affected levels four and 10. All residents were evacuated from the building and relocated to Airbnb and hotel accommodation over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
The building was approved in June 2015 by the Australian Liberal Party's former Planning Minister Robert Stokes as a major building project. Inconsistencies with the buildings structure have largely been related to under-design and lower quality materials. Development weakness is of increased concern, particularly during Sydney's construction boom to compensate for Sydney's increasing population density.
The evacuation, which totaled over 3,000 people living in or near the building, led to a report by university deans, with recommendations to create a directory of engineers who work on buildings.
In February 2019, New South Wales announced it would change building laws after the evacuation. The new regulations require the registration of designers, engineers, and architects, with building commissioners appointed to audit their work.
Building features
The building has 392 apartments, a childcare area, and a retail area. Upon opening, prices for flats ranged from $800,000 to $2.5 million.
In February 2019, it was noted that the government owned 43 or more of the units in Opal Tower.
All remedial works were completed on 30 June 2020 (the building thereby being fully reoccupied). Icon's parent company, Kajima Corporation of Japan, subsequently provided a 20-year warranty - three times greater than required in the state of NSW.
Structural problems
2018 evacuation
Doors were pried open by police and fire brigade with heavy equipment to allow residents to exit the building. Buildings, roads, and a railway station all within a radius of 1 kilometre were evacuated. After the evacuation, experts determined it had shifted between 1 and 2 millimetres. Cracks were found on the 10th and 4th floors.
A fissure on the 10th floor, millimetres wide, created a loud bang, and police were called at 2:45 pm on Christmas Eve over a bomb suspicion. 300 people were evacuated.
Residents were allowed back in after midnight on Christmas Eve, then evacuated later on 27 December. By 3 February 2019 Icon ceased paying for food and accommodation outside of the building for all units that were deemed safe by Cardno, an independent engineering firm engaged by the Owners Corporation to oversee rectification work performed by Icon.
On 19 February a 36-page report commissioned by the NSW Department of Planning asserted it was "overall structurally sound."
Causes
Developer Ecove denied that there had been any corners cut in construction on 27 December 2018. In January 2019, there were reports that horizontal support beams in the structure were possibly "not strong enough to hold precast concrete panels installed on top of them." At the time, four different investigations were looking into the cracked panels. The original structural engineer, WSP was investigating, as was the NSW Government, the Owners Corporation through Cardno, and builder Icon Co. through Rincovitch Partners. On 25 February 2019, a government report blamed the cracks on design and construction faults. It found the building was structurally sound overall, but that horizontal supports beams were not compliant, under-designed and without proper grouting. 221 of the 400 units were empty then.
Minister for Planning and Housing, Hon. Anthony Roberts, requested an investigation into the structural, design and material deficiencies. The report published by Unisearch with data formalised by a collaboration of academics from the University of New South Wales. Results showed four key areas of weakness.