Fault in building that failed in quake identified years before

A fault which caused Wellington’s Statistics House to partly collapse was identified more than three years before the November earthquake.

Yesterday, a government inquiry into the performance of the five-storey office building was released, with the Government promising changes to building and design standards.

Although a number of Wellington buildings were damaged in the quake, most attention focused on Statistics House, completed in 2005, when it emerged that two floors in the building – including areas often accessed by the public – had partly collapsed.

Building and Construction Minister Nick Smith acknowledged yesterday that its performance ‘‘was unacceptable and could have caused fatalities’’.

The report concluded that Statistics House ‘‘generally’’ complied with the building standards of the time it was built. However, elements of its design, coupled with the unusual characteristics of the quake, caused it to fail.

But the report also revealed the design issue that led to the failure of the building was identified in 2013 in a report conducted in the wake of both the Seddon earthquake and the Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission.

‘‘The seating of floor units at the four corners of the building were identified as a critical element,’’ the report said.

Work was under way to fix the problem on the upper floors and, where it had been completed or partly completed, the building performed as it should have.

Where the work was not completed, it partially collapsed.

CentrePort, which owns Statistics House, has refused to comment beyond a statement that the 2013 report found the building was up to 90 per cent of the current building code.

Labour’s Grant Robertson, the MP for Wellington Central, said the work to rectify the problems identified in the building should have been completed by the time of the November quake.

‘‘If the quake had happened just after midday, instead of just after midnight, people would have died. It doesn’t get any more serious than that.’’