Roading joins quake plan
Buildings in the Timaru district will be assessed not only on how earthquake prone (EQP) they are, but on how they could impact main roads around the town should a seismic event take place.
This could impact on how much time the building owner has to carry out strengthening work.
The Timaru District Council is inviting building owners to attend workshops which will give them opportunity to learn about the process, building control manager Jayson Ellis said.
Structural engineers, council staff, representatives from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s Heritage Earthquake Upgrade Incentive Programme (Heritage EQUIP), and the CBD heritage group will be there to answer questions, he said.
‘‘So the idea of the workshops is to provide all the information that they need to know, and a bit of context.’’
The council will this year put together a draft plan of what it believes to be important routes for access in Timaru, Temuka and Geraldine after an earthquake.
‘‘Should an event happen, we need to ensure these routes remain available to access.’’
The plan will be put out for public consultation and the council hoped to make a final decision regarding the plan by the end of the year. Once the consultation process was complete, the council would then begin to identify potentially EQP buildings.
The council has five years from July 1, 2017, to identify all potentially EQP priority buildings, and 10 years to identify all others.
The council’s assessments of buildings will be guided by the Government’s methodology of determining what it believes are at risk buildings. This applies to commercial and some residential buildings built prior to 1976.
The council will carry out an assessment of what it believes to potentially be an EQP building, and will contact the owner to say ‘‘we believe your building is potentially earthquake prone’’, Ellis said.
The owner needs to contact a structural engineer so an initial assessment can be carried out. The information from this then needs to be given to the council.
If the building is determined to be EQP, the owner can contact the engineer and seek further information such as what needs to be done and how. If a potentially EQP building is located along one of the main routes, then it becomes a priority building.
‘‘What that will mean is that the time frame [for strengthening work] will be reduced by half.’’
Priority EQP buildings will have 12.5 years to carry out strengthening work, while nonpriority EQP buildings will have 25 years.
Buildings determined to be EQP will be issued with a notice which must be visible to the public.
A Timaru workshop will be held May 16, Geraldine May 23 and Temuka May 24.