Council building ‘quake risk’
The controversial Horowhenua District Council building is an earthquake risk and civil defence should move out, according to a builder’s report obtained by mayor Michael Feyen.
Feyen has released the independently-funded report to the Manawatu Standard, despite initially being advised not to by his lawyer.
‘‘It’s a hell of a big problem. It had to be made public,’’ he said.
The report, carried out by Structural Concepts, says if the civil defence headquarters stays put inside the council building, it should be considered earthquakeprone.
The $10 million building, which opened a decade ago, is graded ‘‘E’’ by Structural Concepts, but improves to a ‘‘C’’ if civil defence is pushed out.
The building is declared fit to be occupied in the latest report, as it was in other reports, but there are ‘‘potential structural vulnerabilities’’, including concerns about the roof.
The report also states that the site on which the building stands consists of ‘‘unconsolidated to poorly consolidated mud, sand, gravel and peat’’.
Feyen has previously publicly questioned the building’s safety in the event of an earthquake, despite two reports from 2014 and 2016 determining it as safe.
‘‘This has always been a concern for the safety and health of the people in the building,’’ Feyen said on Wednesday. ‘‘I wasn’t going to back down.
‘‘That building is an absolute nightmare. My concern is how we move it forward, quickly from here.’’
Getting engineers to agree on what work is needed, and then carrying out repairs, could cost tens of thousands of dollars, however.
And Feyen has asked the council to reimburse him for the Structural Concepts report, which cost him $24,800.
Chief executive David Clapperton said he welcomed the release of the latest report and acknowledged the community’s frustration about the ongoing issue.
Clapperton pointed out the Structural Concepts report states the building is currently in sound condition. However, the report differed with the two previous reports, carried out by Opus and ISPS Consulting.
The two other firms were reviewing Structural Concepts’ report.
Expected costs of the remedial work, recommended by ISPS Consulting, to lengthen the life of the building were estimated at $30,000, Clapperton said.
But the costs could now balloon out to much more than that if councillors decide they should address the issues raised in the Structural Concepts report.
Civil defence could operate from anywhere – in Christchurch operations were run from an art gallery, Clapperton said.
The council’s emergency operations controller and Horizons Regional Council had been informed of the report, he said.
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