‘Safety paramount’ as parking building’s top floor remains closed
The top floor of the Timaru District Council’s Sophia St parking building is to remain closed following an evaluation of the structure.
The closure, affecting about 70 parks, will remain while investigations continue, the council said yesterday.
The council’s group manager infrastructure, Andrew Dixon, acknowledged the timing was unfortunate but added ‘‘the safety of users was paramount’’.
‘‘The inspections to date have identified remedial maintenance work required for parts of the building.
‘‘Investigations are continuing as to the extent of the work required and how that can be managed to keep the building or parts of it operational.
‘‘Council is progressively working through this and is awaiting further expert advice from a specialist engineer before we can be in a position to provide more detail,’’ Dixon said.
The Timaru Herald has asked the council for more information on what has been identified as needing further investigation.
The remainder of the building reopened for parking yesterday.
The four-week closure of the building followed a report to the council in June, in which acting group manager commercial and strategy, Jason Rivett, indicated it required waterproofing and structural repair estimated to cost an additional $180,000.
‘‘Following annual inspection it was identified that there was some work required to ensure ongoing safe use of the structure, this includes waterproofing and some crack repairs,’’ Rivett’s report said.
However, the council’s land transport manager Susannah Ratahi said on October 27 the car park building had been assessed by qualified structural engineers and was ‘‘safe’’.
Ratahi said the evaluation was being carried out to assess durability of the building and was the first step to eventually determining a rating against the New Building Standard.
‘‘The assessment will identify any areas of concern and council will plan maintenance accordingly in our next Long Term Plan.’’
A building below 34% of NBS is considered earthquake-prone.
‘‘To help mitigate the reduction in parks, changes have been made to adjacent Bank St to allow free parking for two hours over the Christmas and New Year period,’’ the council said yesterday.
‘‘New wayfinding signage will be put in place to guide people to nearby alternative parks.’’