Sydney’s cracked Opal Tower residents can be home for Christmas

Repair works mean the green light has been given to return home to the Sydney Olympic Park apartments.

It has been almost a year since loud cracking on Christmas Eve forced the evacuation of 392 units within the year-old apartment tower in Sydney Olympic Park. Source: www.domain.com.au

All the residents of Sydney’s cracked Opal Tower will be home for Christmas after the completion of repair works meant the final few were given the green light to return home.

It has been almost a year since loud cracking on Christmas Eve forced the evacuation of 392 units within the year-old apartment tower in Sydney Olympic Park. Following a series of remediation works by the tower’s builder, Icon Construction, all the apartments have been marked liveable, with the remaining 30 tenants moving back since September.

Icon has confirmed it will offer a 20-year structural warranty on all completed works, more than a decade longer than the standard six-year period required for residential buildings in NSW.

The builder’s managing director Nicholas Brown thanked residents for their co-operation over the past year and declared the building is now the safest in the country.

“Our commitment to seeing this project fulfil its full potential has been unwavering from day one and we are pleased to provide the 20-year warranty as a sign of our confidence in the building today,” Mr Brown said.

“We believe Opal Tower is now the safest building in Australia when it comes to structural integrity.

“While we acknowledge the very challenging circumstances residents faced when the issues first emerged in December last year, we remained focused on delivering best-practice rectification. Safety is always our top priority and we have been committed to ensuring residents were back in the building as quickly as possible.”

While Icon takes no blame for the damage, it has spent more than $31m following the debacle to cover repair costs and the relocation of residents.

Earlier this month, Icon lodged documents to the NSW Supreme Court as part of the Opal Tower class action, alleging engineer WSP Structures had mishandled the building's design and were at fault.