Earthquake tonight

cliff · #1 04-09-10, 23:54

Bob I was a building inspector for Franklin District Council just South of Auckland before shifting to Queensland in 1999 and we were updated on new Earthquake design features and changes on a regular basis. It was a bit of a culture shock at first as here they concentrate on the uplift from Cyclone winds rather then the bracing and design for earthquakes. I'd hate to see even a small one in this area as it would destroy about 90% of all the buildings.

I phoned my Brother who lives in Timaru and got news about a cousin who lives at Ashburton. No damage and no injuries there to either which relieved my worries about them when I heard about the quake. Our news here last night estimated damage at 1.5 Billion Dollars and rising and I know from experience just how long it will take to get things back to the way they were before this happened. Just glad it did not happen at peak shopping hours and only 2 were seriously hurt.

Rob Beale · #2 05-09-10, 11:47

Cheers Cliff,

Do you remember that earthquake in NSW (Wollongong I think), about 1985?
It caused widespread damage, yet was only low magnitude.

The "leaky building" problem in Auckland and elsewhere seem to have come about when they allowed new building practices at the same time as changing timber treatment standards to allow alternatives to boric treatment of radiata pine softwoods. Instead of a pesticide with fungicide properties they used pesticides only to combat "wood borer insects", and any minor leaks now resulted in rotting.

I was in Turkey last month visiting Gallipoli and was looking at some new buildings in Ecebat. What scared me was the skinny columns compared to the floor slabs. To me this is a recipe for disaster, as there is no bracing between floors to stop columns failing and the pancake effect of falling floors. Maybe their earthquakes occur in the eastern side of the country?

In Oz the wind will be a greater danger, and design standards will show this. We use "cyclone ties" to hold roof trusses down but they are pretty useless in a cyclone!

We have a NZMVCC meeting in Christchurch next month, so I hope to get a look at some of the city then.

all the best for all our friends and relatives in Christchurch and mid Canterbury

regards
Rob

ps. well done the Wallabies!

cliff · #3 05-09-10, 22:37

worse still was them allowing untreated non structural framing in non load bearing walls. It is no wonder rules like this caused the NZBIA (New Zealand Building Industry Authority) a Government owned entity to go bankrupt and overnight emerge as a new agency with the same staff to avoid getting sued by all and sundry. This also lead to the end of Private Certifiers as they could not get insurance to cover any 'mistakes' although there are still one or two companies contracted to individual local councils with the council covering the insurance.

Rob Beale · #4 08-09-10, 09:23

This graphic shows the pattern of the earthquake and aftershocks in Christchurch since Saturday morning:

http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz

The damage estimate has been doubled to NZ$4 billion today.
The aftershocks are causing further damage with cracks opening wider.

They have already started demolition of some of the 500 damaged buildings in the central city. Some will be saved and strengthened, but many will not.

Half the Building section from my work headed south today to help out with the assessments in Christchurch - they had to do the same job in Gisborne 2 1/2 years ago.

Rob