CQUniversity engaged BRS to complete a compliance audit at their Mackay campus (City & Ooralea) across electrical, fire, hazardous area and building service disciplines.
The City campus is spread across 6 buildings in Mackay CBD, and the Ooralea campus which is situated on the outskirts of Mackay City. Both campuses have a spread of building uses, ages and renovation dates.
Legislation & standards audited against included:
• AS/NZS 3000 Wiring Rules
• AS/NZS 3003 Electrical Installations – Patient Areas
• AS/NZS 60079 Hazardous Areas
• Queensland Electrical Safety Act 2002
• Queensland Electrical Safety Regulation 2013
• Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990
• Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008
• National Construction Code 2016
Over 2 days, a BRS engineer worked with CQUniversity staff to visit a snapshot of buildings across both campuses to assess compliance or ways to improve their operations. Importantly, consideration was given to how the physical assets related to their digital assets, and the transition of this information into the new campus management system, “Archybus”.
Several recommendations were made in a report to the client, including:
• Creating an As Built drawing set of HV and LV electrical distribution
• In depth review and required upgrades to achieve/maintain Hazardous Area compliance
• Analyse HV distribution network for Arc Flash fault levels at main LV switchboards
• Further investigation about fire detection & suppression across all buildings
• Improved housekeeping around electrical, mechanical and fire panels
• Fault Current analysis of buildings before upgrades, to ensure breaker coordination is maintained and capacity not exceeded
• Audit of body protection usage and areas across the campus, in compliance with AS/NZS 3003
This is in addition to general recommendations already provided to CQUniversity for nation-wide implementation, including a drafting specification, an energy efficiency campaign, and increased use of solar generation to offset energy costs.
The report delivered to the client also provided and expected timeframe for delivery of the recommendations, to indicate to CQUniversity the time required to achieve each outcome.
As a result of the work completed, BRS has been engaged since by CQUniversity to complete similar audits at other CQUniveristy campuses, as well as to work on some of the recommendations for Mackay Campuses.
