Public safety at Greenmeadows based on trust
The safety of the public in the Greenmeadows community centre was based primarily on the word of the engineer, Nelson City Council staff say.
Based on the findings of Grant Hunt’s independent review, the council staff could not confirm if the building in Stoke was safe or not.
The Stoke Rugby club was allowed to use its clubrooms at Greenmeadows based on Certificates of Public Use (CPU) issued by the council on three occasions.
CPUs were issued by Nelson City Council (NCC) manager of building Martin Brown and senior building inspectors Tim Bijl and Winton Griggs, signed between April 4 and June 29.
The rugby club later was forced to vacate the premises when it was found that there were problems with base plates, specifically with reinforcing steel. Council chief executive Pat Dougherty described the base plates as ‘‘holding up the roof’’.
A whistleblower contacted The
Nelson Mail with his concerns on June 26, outlining several construction issues.
He said he and other contractors had been concerned since ‘‘about Christmas’’ last year.
He said he had talked with various contractors about ‘‘the state of it out there’’.
‘‘It had become a beast that got out of control, I don’t think anyone was prepared to say anything,’’ he said.
‘‘It was quite unreal there. It just kept going . . . I thought, at some point someone’s got to stop and say, ‘This isn’t good enough’.’’
He said he raised issues and concerns with a building inspector, but nothing was done.
The council’s group manager for strategy and environment, Clare Barton, said there was no record of any people involved with the construction raising issues with any council staff.
Building science programme director at Victoria University, Geoff Thomas, said a ‘‘base plate’’ could refer to many parts of the building, so he could not say specifically what the result of the faulty base plates could be at Greenmeadows.
He said that a building with faulty base plates of most types would generally be safe, but could be more affected by earthquakes or, if it was a light structure, strong winds.
‘‘The two possible consequences to having a faulty [specific type of base plate] could be the walls sliding sideways in an earthquake, or a strong wind lifting up a lightweight building.’’
He said this would be a rare event, and if Dougherty was referring to a different type of base plate, there would be other, less serious consequences.
Brown said the CPU was issued based on ‘‘safety for living’’ standards, which include electrical and fire safety sign-offs for the area being used, and sign-offs on plans by the site managers that the public would not be put at risk from the ongoing construction.
The structural safety was assumed based on a construction review statement signed by structural engineer David Elliott on March 26, 2018.
This statement declared that ‘‘part only’’ of the building had been completed in accordance with the relevant clauses of the building consent and the sections of the building code regarding structure.
Barton said that based on the evidence available at the time the CPUs were signed, the building was deemed safe.
‘‘In terms of the CPU, we had evidence that [the public] were safe.’’
She was unable to say if the structure actually was safe, based on the audit’s finding regarding the base plates.
‘‘The engineer has rescinded parts of the [signed statement],’’ she said.
Barton said the engineer was checking the building again. She was unable to say if it was the same engineer who originally signed the statement declaring part of the building safe who was reviewing the site now.
Greenmeadows has been plagued with issues of quality and construction, but it wasn’t until the council contracted an independent review that deeper structural issues such as a twist in the roof and the base plates were discovered.
The building was originally meant to open late last year but is now unlikely to open until next year.
‘‘We had evidence that [the public] were safe.’’
Clare Barton, Nelson City Council group manager for strategy and environment