Smart Foundations for Regional Housing in Bundaberg

In regional areas like Bundaberg, getting the foundations right is critical. Ground conditions, access constraints and weather can all impact how quickly and efficiently housing can be delivered. Traditional concrete footings often mean:

• Multiple trades and site visits
• Weather-dependent pours and curing times
• Heavy excavation and site disturbance
• Longer timeframes before above-ground works can commence

For this Bundaberg project, the goal was to deliver high-quality homes faster, with less disruption and more predictability, making foundation choice a key part of the strategy.

To achieve this, the project adopted FTA helical screw piles as the foundation system across all 34 homes.

Helical screw piles offer several advantages:

• Speed of installation – Piles are screwed into the ground using specialised machinery, with no need for concrete curing times.
• Minimal site disturbance – Reduced excavation means less noise, mess and impact on surrounding areas.
• Predictable performance – Load capacity is checked during installation, delivering confidence in performance and compliance.
• All-weather versatility – Unlike concrete, screw piles can often be installed in a wider range of site and weather conditions.

For modular housing, they are an especially strong fit. Once installed, the piles provide an accurate, stable base ready to receive modules as they arrive from the factory, helping streamline the interface between offsite manufacturing and onsite delivery.

Across the Bundaberg project, using helical screw piles as part of a modular delivery model meant:

• Faster site establishment, allowing homes to be installed and completed sooner
• Shorter time on the ground for construction teams and equipment
• Reduced disruption for neighbouring residents and the local community
• Greater certainty around program, even with regional logistics and weather in play

While much of the detail happens behind the scenes, the outcomes are very visible: high-quality homes delivered in a shorter timeframe, with less interruption to everyday life in and around the neighbourhood.

This project is a clear example of how modular building can support regional housing outcomes. By shifting much of the construction process into a controlled factory environment and pairing it with smarter foundation systems, it becomes possible to:

• Deliver homes more quickly where they’re most needed
• Maintain consistent quality and finishes across multiple dwellings
• Reduce exposure to delays caused by weather and site complexity
• Improve safety and efficiency for construction teams

For regional centres like Bundaberg, this approach supports growth in a way that’s scalable, repeatable and community-friendly.

Delivering 34 homes using FTA helical screw piles required alignment between design, engineering, manufacturing and on-site teams.

That collaboration ensured:

• Foundations were designed with modular installation in mind
• Site works and installation sequences were carefully planned
• Each home could be efficiently positioned, levelled and connected

For Saltair, projects like this contribute to a continuous cycle of improvement, testing new combinations of technology, engineering and delivery methods to keep lifting the benchmark for regional housing.

The Bundaberg project has been profiled by Built Offsite, highlighting how modular construction and innovative foundations are changing the way we build.

Read more from Built Offsite here.

Saltair is proud to be part of this shift - using smart foundations and smarter delivery models to help create resilient, high-quality homes for regional communities.