Owners of 36 earthquake-prone buildings notified

Earthquake-prone building notices have been issued for 36 buildings in the Southland area during the first year of assessments.

Of those, 30 were in Invercargill, two were in Bluff and four were in Gore.

Invercargill City Council development liaison manager Simon Tonkin said he had carried out initial earthquake safety assessments on 500 buildings in the Invercargill CBD and Gore St in Bluff – two years ahead of schedule.

‘‘As a result, owners of more than 200 buildings have been notified that an engineer’s assessment is required,’’ he said.

Notices were issued to buildings considered unsafe based on the engineer’s assessment. They’re also added to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Earthquake Prone Building Register. The assessments were being conducted as part of changes to the Building Act introduced in 2017.

‘‘With Invercargill considered a medium-risk zone for earthquakes, the council needed to consider whether we had ‘priority areas’,’’ Tonkin said.

As a result, the council has completed investigations for 23 blocks within the city and part of Gore St.

The Government required these priority buildings to be checked by July 2022.

The Gore District Council was also ahead of schedule with its identification process and expected to complete its list of priority buildings by the end of this year.

Gore District building control manager Russell Paterson said the council had already received 30 earthquake rating reports that were submitted voluntarily.

‘‘Some building owners have been taking the initiative by engaging engineers to do assessments of their properties.’’

Tonkin said many property owners in Invercargill were undertaking assessments as part of maintenance work or when potential problems were identified.

‘‘An example of this is the Surrey Park grandstand,’’ he said.

Most of the Invercargill buildings found to quake-prone were located in the CBD. At least 13 were set to be demolished as part of the Invercargill Central redevelopment.

Building owners were given deadlines of between 12 and 25 years to complete seismic work, depending on the structure of the building and its risk. These time frames were set by MBIE, Tonkin said.

Paterson said he was looking at ‘‘the possibility of unreinforced masonry facades falling into a public area during an earthquake’’.

Both Paterson and Tonkin stressed that the councils were only in the early stages of identifying buildings that may be a risk.

‘‘The inspection process for the entire city is not yet complete,’’ Tonkin said.

The Southern District Council said it had begun initial assessments, but hadn’t completed any.

The councils have until July 1, 2027, to assess remaining buildings.