Centre damage ‘cosmetic’
The consulting engineer who signed off construction on Gore’s MLT Event Centre says cracking on a structural wall underneath the seating area is cosmetic.
Tony Major, who was the registered consulting engineer on the project, said the damage could be chipped away and plastered over.
He visited the event centre to view the seating area last week, but he has not spoken directly to the Gore District Council.
Last week the council closed the seating area and had a structural engineer from WPS Opus carry out a preliminary assessment of the centre after staff reported that cracks in a supporting wall under the seating area had worsened.
WSP Opus’s assessment states as well as damage to the bleacher support wall below the seating area, damage was also found with perimeter concrete panels, which have damage to the top corner.
Only some of the concrete encased steel columns were inspected due to low light, but two were found to have cracks.
The report further says the method for reinforcing concrete encasement of structural steel used is ‘‘not one that we are familiar with’’.
Council chief executive Steve Parry said the council had not spoken to any parties involved in the construction of the centre and wouldn’t until an engineer had carried out a detailed assessment of the building.
‘‘There’s no point in doing that until we know what we’re dealing with, it would be premature. There’s visual cracking but we don’t know the extent of the damage yet.
‘‘The building is insured but it’s premature to speculate on whether there will be any remediation sought by council.’’
However, he said advice they had been given was that there were design deficiencies.
Parry said the council was obtaining a detailed assessment of the building by a structural engineer because of Major’s involvement in the construction of the building.
Major, who visited the MLT Event Centre on Friday and Sunday, said he believed the cracking was cosmetic.
‘‘There’s no direct connection between the bleacher and the wall. There’s 15-20ml of flexible sealant between the bleacher and the wall. What caused the cracking is that the bleacher has been deflected, as they do, and it’s applying a load onto the wall.’’
He said it was expected that the bleacher would deflect.
He said the reinforcing
concrete encasement of structural steel in columns in the building was perfectly adequate.
‘‘Just because they haven’t seen it before doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with it.’’
He said he had not inspected cracking in concrete panels when he visited the centre on Friday but had previously reported to the council about the issue.
‘‘The damage looks to all the world that they’ve fallen off the back of a truck or been stored incorrectly – they’ve [the council] got a report from me on that.’’
Major reiterated that he did not design the building – it was his job to sign it off for consent purposes.
‘‘I’d be concerned if there were a problem but in my opinion there is not.’’
In 2015, Major issued a statement apologising for his part in the Stadium Southland roof collapse in 2010, saying his monitoring of work during construction was below standard.
The MLT Event Centre opened in 2009 and has a maximum capacity of 1000 people.