Structural testing changes fall short
Changes to the way earthquake-prone structures are assessed do not go far enough to protect people from the most dangerous parts of buildings, earthquake survivor Ann Brower says.
Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith on Sunday announced changes to the Government’s proposed earthquake strengthening policy.
In Christchurch, the changes will require all education and emergency buildings including hospitals to have seismic capacity assessments done within 2.5 years and another 7.5 years from the assessment to bring them up to at least 33 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS).
The time frame for other non-residential buildings in high-risk Christchurch, Blenheim and Wellington remains unchanged at five years for the assessment and then 15 years for the work to be completed.
The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission recommended all unreinforced masonry buildings should have their seismic capacity assessed within two years and any required strengthening work done within seven years.
Brower, the sole survivor of a bus crushed by a collapsed building in Colombo St during the February 2011 earthquake, was disappointed the minister had not dealt with the most dangerous parts of buildings such as parapets, chimneys and facades.
Forty people died in the February 2011 quake because of the failure of unreinforced masonry buildings.
Last year, Brower wrote a hard-hitting submission on the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Bill, urging the Government to retrofit unreinforced masonry buildings first.
Her submission was echoed by Christchurch City Council.
Brower said on Sunday, Smith had ‘‘cherry picked’’ the advice he had received choosing to adopt the cheapest options.
Smith said the policy did give priority to areas like verandahs and chimneys because a whole building would be deemed earthquake prone even if only the verandah needed to be fixed, which provided an incentive to building owners to do the work.
He has also introduced new risk zones across New Zealand, giving places deemed medium or low risk, including Nelson, Dunedin and Auckland longer to get the assessments and work done.
Building owners in Dunedin, Oamaru and Auckland would have 15 years to get the assessments done and 35 years after that to get the work completed.
Brower said: ‘‘They followed the cheap bit of the advice and extended the time frame for the less dangerous buildings and did not speed up the time for the most dangerous parts.’’
Smith said the Government received advice there was not enough expertise available to meet the royal commission’s recommended deadlines.
The number of buildings requiring assessment has also been reduced from 500,000 to 30,000 after Smith excluded farm buildings, retaining walls, fences, monuments, wharves, bridges, tunnels and storage tanks.
The new approach has reduced the estimated cost of the Bill from $1360 million to $777m.
The parliamentary select committee was considering the bill with the proposed changes, and would report back in July.