Quake risk building to close

The Southland Museum and Art Gallery building will close to the public by the end of this week because it is deemed an earthquake risk.

The shock announcement, which affects 41 staff, was made at a media conference at the Invercargill City Council headquarters at 2pm yesterday.

Invercargill City Council chief executive Clare Hadley said there were issues of ‘‘critical structural weakness’’. ‘‘We are closing the building because we believe it won’t be safe for large groups of people.’’

The museum is the third prominent building to be shut in Invercargill due to earthquake safety concerns in the last six years, with the famed Water Tower shutting in 2012 and Anderson House being closed in early 2014.

The museum, which was expecting 220,000 people through it doors this year, doubles as an art gallery and also has an information centre, shop, cafe and area for tuatara.

The shop and cafe will be closed, the ISite information centre will be relocated to an as yet unknown location, and the public will still be able to view the tuatara from outside the museum.

The decision to close was made by the Southland Museum and Art Gallery Trust Board with the support of the Invercargill City Council, after the trust board received expert advice two weeks ago regarding the safety of the museum buildings in the case of an earthquake.

A peer review of a previous 2013 seismic assessment confirmed the buildings were less than 34 per cent of the new building standard.

Structural engineer Win Clarke concluded the buildings under the pyramid were probably earthquake prone, Hadley said.

The 41 staff in the museum building would be withdrawn ‘‘as soon as practically possible’’.

The decision was not made lightly, and Hadley acknowledged it would be a difficult time for staff, but no chances were being taken with their safety, she said.

‘‘Redeployment for a lot of those people is a real possibility.’’