A Christmas deadline is firmly in the minds of contractors working on The Village, a A$160 million mixed residential and retail development at Balgowlah on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

The Village is an Abigroup design & construct project for Stockland Group with approximately 60 shops, a supermarket and 247 apartments with swimming pool and landscaped podium above carparking for 1,500 vehicles.

Total completion is not scheduled until August 2009, but Superior Formwork and other contractors are working to complete the carpark and retail area in time for the 2008 Christmas season.

Superior Formwork's task includes the installation of 40,000 square metres of 0.75mm LYSAGHT BONDEK® structural steel formwork.

Its workforce at The Village will rise to 85 on a job which encompasses two parking levels, a retail level, a podium level and eight residential buildings with four to nine levels.

"If we were using conventional formwork we would need up to 130 workers," Superior Formwork Director, Tony Pejkovic said.

"We are using BONDEK® sheeting in lengths up to 8.15 metres and that is really speeding up the rate at which we can cover the areas which we need to achieve."

"We calculate our requirements two or three days in advance then work with BlueScope Lysaght to arrange delivery as we need it."

"On a big project like this you have to book the site's tower crane but that hasn't been a problem because the deliveries of BONDEK® sheeting have always been on time."

"BlueScope Lysaght bundle the material and clearly identify each sling load, so there's no time lost getting the material to where it is needed."

"The building program is definitely on a fast track, but we aren't having any difficulty meeting our targets."

"If we were using plywood formwork on this job we would be here for three months longer than we will take using BONDEK® sheeting."

Tony Pejkovic said the long lengths of LYSAGHT BONDEK® sheeting presented no problems for two men to handle.

Tony Pejkovic said the long lengths of LYSAGHT BONDEK® sheeting presented no problems for two men to handle.

"There's not a lot of weight to lift. Most of the time they are just sliding the sheets along and they are certainly lighter than plywood formwork," he said.

Superior Formwork regularly works with some of the country's largest construction groups and has established a reputation for quality and reliability.

"When you use a system like BONDEK® formwork you don't have to sacrifice quality to achieve the speed required or to contain costs," Tony said.

"We have done our calculations on small projects as well as on large ones such as this and that's why we are happy to work with BONDEK® formwork."

"Our client gets a quality result that is achieved quickly with less people on site than conventional formwork would require."

"There's less material handling and a generally safer worksite and the following trades can get quick access to the underside of the slab because there's no stripping required."

"From our point of view our labour costs are lower and we have much less timber to transport, stack and store between jobs."