25 buildings remain a risk
Owners of 25 Wellington buildings with dangerous masonry are yet to start emergency earthquake strengthening work – more than a year after they were told too – despite outlining work programmes to avoid prosecution.
The Government granted the owners of 75 buildings with unreinforced masonry a six-month extension to their deadline in March, which has effectively rendered the council powerless to speed up the live-saving work until late September.
Wellington City Council chief resilience officer Mike Mendonca said owners who had failed to start work were being ‘‘monitored very closely’’ and the council was prepared to prosecute those who missed the deadline.
There were many factors that could be causing delays, but buildings in pedestrian hot spots including Cuba St, Willis St, and Courtenay Place are still dotted with earthquake-prone facades – the likes of which killed 40 and injured 100 in the 2011 Christchurch quake.
Legislation brought in after the 2016 Kaiko¯ ura earthquake saw the owners of 113 Wellington buildings in high-use pedestrian areas given a year to tie back facades.
That deadline expired in March. But Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa granted extensions, provided remediation planning was underway from an engineer and the owner had a programme of work showing strengthening would be completed before late September.
A large number of building owners scrambled to meet the requirements, with the council warning it of the risks that the buildings could be cordoned off. In the end, all of the unrepaired sites were granted extensions.
Mendonca said the purpose of the Unreinforced Masonary (URM) initiative was public safety, and building owners had a key role to play. ‘‘In the last eight years in this country, we’ve had two major earthquakes. Wellington is built on 33 known faultlines.
‘‘We know we are going to have another earthquake. Nobody wants to have a death or an injury on their conscience.’’
On Thursday, Hutt City Council said it was prosecuting an apartment owner on Jackson St for failing to undertake strengthening work – the first prosecution of its kind in New Zealand – which carries a fine up to $200,000.
Mendonca said Wellington City Council had not ruled out following the same path.
Salesa said yesterday that no further time extensions would be granted for securing work.
‘‘Where building owners have done nothing, I expect councils to exercise their powers to manage public safety risks.’’
One of the Cuba St property owners, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that strengthening work had been delayed due to difficulties agreeing what repairs were required with the council.
‘‘It took a long time corresponding with council to get agreement on what needed to be done, and once we got that we were full speed ahead.’’
The owner said the work, which involved strengthening a roof parapet, would be completed by the deadline.
Cost was a hurdle, particularly as the strengthening did not change the use of the building or increase its value, she said.
Owners targeted in the URM initiative can apply for $25,000 to $65,000 in taxpayer funding to complete strengthening work.
Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said owners knew the repercussions if they didn’t finish works in time but would not pledge to prosecute those who dragged their feet.
‘‘We want to work with people to make sure this happens. We’re not going to wield a stick, we’re going to use carrots, and we have that with incentives we can offer.’’
Lester would not be drawn on whether he would support future deadline extensions. ‘‘It’s the minister’s call. They draft legislation.’’
An apartment owner in another affected building said work had been delayed to factor in with wider strengthening work but was expected to begin in the coming weeks. ‘‘We’re confident it will be done in time,’’ he said.
Structural engineer Peter Smith, who is also the former president of the New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE), said unreinforced masonry buildings were a ‘‘deathtrap’’.
‘‘There’s many lessons of these facades. If you go back into the Masterton earthquake, [or] Pahiatua earthquake back in the [19]30s, whole streets were littered with facades in those earthquakes.’’
Wellington came away unscathed in the last big quake because the manner of shaking affected mainly taller buildings but that may not be the case in future.