Quake risk to be reassessed
The risk status of around 60 buildings in Central Hawke’s Bay identified as potentially earthquake-prone in 2012 is about to be revisited.
CHB District council will meet this week about new seismic strengthening deadlines set for building owners by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment under the Building (Earthquakeprone) Buildings Amendment Act 2016, which came into effect last July.
The new legislation varies the timeframes for identifying and remediating earthquake-prone buildings according to seismic risk, with areas around New Zealand categorised a high, medium or a low seismic risk.
As CHB is a high risk area, as is the rest of Hawke’s Bay, the district council has until July 2022 to identify all potentially earthquake prone buildings in the district.
Owners will be required to provide an engineering assessment within 12 months of their building being identified as potentially earthquake-prone, though council will have limited discretion to extend the timeframe for up to a further 12 months.
Under the legislation, owners have 15 years to strengthen their buildings. However, owners of un-reinforced masonry buildings located on “priority routes” will have a shorter seven-and-a-half year timeframe to make their buildings safe.
As defined by the MBIE, priority routes are busy roads or footpaths where falling masonry from buildings damaged in an earthquake would pose a high risk to life and public safety. Under the legislation, priority routes will be determined through public consultation.
The district council started work on identifying earthquakeprone buildings in CHB in 2012 after the Christchurch earthquake, and identified an initial list of 63 buildings it considered earthquake-prone.
Buildings owners were contacted and assessments were undertaken on some of the buildings, including three council-owned buildings.
Work stopped on the project stopped in 2013 on the advice of MBIE, as councils around the country awaited the findings of the Royal Commission of Enquiry into the Christchurch Earthquakes.
Two of the council buildings in CHB on the list — the War Memorial Hall in Waipukurau and Waipukurau District Library — have since been strengthened, while a third was found not to be earthquakeprone.
Council’s acting chief executive, Doug Tate, said last week of the remaining 60 privately-owned buildings, six responses were received from building owners at that time, but none had since been formally identified as being earthquakeprone.
However, since 2012, a number of building owners had communicated to council that their buildings had been strengthened, he said.
At this stage, council was unable to say how many of the 60 buildings were on the priority routes as council was yet to formally identified those routes, Mr Tate said.
“This identification process of priority routes will take place through consultation with the public in September, and this consultation will then allow us to identify which buildings are priority in accordance with the legislation.”
Mr Tate said council acknowledged the challenges and opportunities with earthquake-prone buildings and importantly the potential concerns it could create for building and business owners.
“Rather than just taking a regulatory approach, council intends to run in parallel, forums for building and business owners to give confidence and support to them through understanding the options that lie ahead. With a growing population and thriving economy, there are great opportunities ahead. “
Mr Tate said forums were planned for August, though dates were yet to be confirmed, with consultation due to be launched in September.
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