The 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes generated damage in several Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings, which had RC walls as the principal resistant element against earthquake demand. Despite the agreement between structural engineers and researchers in an overall successfully performance there was a lack of knowledge about the behaviour of the damaged structures, and even deeper about a repaired structure, which triggers arguments between different parties that remains up to these days. Then, it is necessary to understand the capacity of the buildings after the earthquake and see how simple repairs techniques improve the building performance. This study will assess the residual capacity of ductile slender RC walls according to current standards in New Zealand, NZS 3101.1 2006 A3. First, a Repaired RC walls Database is created trying to gather previous studies and to evaluate them with existing international guidelines. Then, an archetype building is designed, and the wall is extracted and scaled. Four half-scale walls were designed and will be constructed and tested at the Structures Testing Laboratory at The University of Auckland. The overall dimensions are 3 [m] height, 2 [m] length and 0.175 [m] thick. All four walls will be identical, with differences in the loading protocol and the presence or absence of a repair technique. Results are going to be useful to assess the residual capacity of a damaged wall compare to the original behaviour and also the repaired capacity of walls with simpler repair techniques. The expected behaviour is focussed on big changes in stiffness, more evident than in previously tested RC beams found in the literature.
Repair work being done to the Victoria Clock Tower on the corner of Montreal Street and Victoria Street.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Facade of the McKenzie & Willis building corner High and Tuam Streets (to be repaired)".
Red stickered building means no access, and the building may be condemned if it cannot be repaired; aftermath of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit Christchurch on 4 September 2010.
Knox Church Rebuild/ repair on a walk around the neighbourhood May 17, 2014 Christchurch New Zealand.
The quality of multi-owned residential buildings and the capability to maintain that quality into the future is important in preserving not only the monetary value of such housing (Lujanen, 2010) but also the quality of life for its residents. The aim of this paper is to examine the governance and decision-making rules and regulations as they relate to the undertaking of major repairs in multi-owned residential buildings in Finland and New Zealand with particular regard to the Finnish Limited Liability Housing Companies Act 2010 (LLHCA 2010) and the New Zealand Unit Titles Act 2010 (UTA 2010). Currently, major building repairs are topical issues in both countries; in Finland as a result of ageing buildings requiring major re-fitting of pipes and other infrastructure, and in New Zealand as a result of earthquake damage in Christchurch and Leaky Building Syndrome nationwide. Major repairs can be a significant financial burden to unit owners and collective decisions can be difficult to achieve. Interestingly, new legislation that governs multi-owned housing was enacted in both countries in 2010. The recent enactment of this legislation provides an opportunity to examine the UTA 2010 and LLHCA 2010 with regard to how they address major repairs, improvements in housing stock and the financing possibilities associated with these undertakings. More specifically this paper explores housing intensification (i.e. building up, out or alongside existing multi-owned residential buildings on commonly owned land) as a means of financing major repairs. The comparison of governance and decision-making in two different shared ownership systems with different histories and cultural contexts provides a chance to explore the possibilities and challenges that each country faces, and the potential to learn from each other’s practices and develop these further. In this regard the findings from this paper contribute to the academic literature (Bugden 2005; Easthope & Randolph 2009; Dupuis & Dixon 2010; Lujanen 2010; Easthope, Hudson & Randolph 2013) concerning to the governance of multi-owned housing as it relates to intensive housing development and its wider social and economic implications.
Yellow stickered building means restricted access, and the building will need to be repaired and certified fit for use; aftermath of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit Christchurch on 4 September 2010.
An aerial photograph of the PricewaterhouseCoopers building. The photograph is captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "PricewaterhouseCoopers building at 119 Armagh Street. Its status is uneconomic to repair, so it will be demolished. Copthorne Central is visible behind it and will be staying".
Some owners of commercial buildings badly damaged in the Canterbury earthquake, have been told if they don't repair or demolish them by January the 31st, the Christchurch City Council will do it for them.
Knox Church earthquake repair/rebuild on a walk around Christchurch December 11, 2013 New Zealand. www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-20... All about our ear...
A fire engine driving past the damaged Provincial Council Legislative Chamber on Durham Street. The building's roof and walls have collapsed, as has the scaffolding which was erected to repair it after the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Christ's College, Rolleston Avenue. Damage to the top of this building has had temporary repairs carried out".
Ongoing repair and deconstruction work on Victoria Street. The car park to the left of the image was left after the demolition of a building.
The damaged Provincial Council Legislative Chamber on Durham Street in the aftermath of the 22 February earthquake. The building's roof and walls have collapsed, as has the scaffolding which was erected to repair it after the 4 September earthquake.
The University of Canterbury's E-Learning team's temporary office in the James Hight building. The photographer comments, "Yet another change of workplace for our E-Learning group, as the University juggles people and buildings to carry out earthquake repairs. My desk".
he 2016 Building (Earthquake Prone Building) Amendment Act aims to improve the system for managing earthquake-prone buildings. The proposed changes to the Act were precipitated by the Canterbury earthquakes, and the need to improve the seismic safety of New Zealand’s building stock. However, the Act has significant ramifications for territorial authorities, organisations and individuals in small New Zealand towns, since assessing and repairing heritage buildings poses a major cost to districts with low populations and poor rental returns on commercial buildings.
A crane working on a brick building in the Christchurch central city. A sign on the fence reads, "Quake repairs, keep out, for your own safety".
A cordon check point on Durham Street. The demolition site was a building that housed Laycock Collision Repairs. The Christchurch Casino can be seen in the background.
The damaged Provincial Council Legislative Chamber on Durham Street in the aftermath of the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The building's roof and walls have collapsed, as has the scaffolding which was erected to repair it after the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
The damaged Provincial Council Legislative Chamber on Durham Street in the aftermath of the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The building's roof and walls have collapsed, as has the scaffolding which was erected to repair it after the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
The Lyttelton Coffee Company building on London Street in Lyttelton is weatherproofed with black tarpaulins. The spray-painted signs guide customers to Samo Coffee Lounge, a cafe run by the staff of Lyttelton Coffee Company while the building is being repaired.
A protest is underway outside insurance company Vero's Christchurch's office, with building owners dismayed to be still fighting for earthquake repairs 10 years on. The protest was organised by the owners of an 11 unit apartment block in New Brighton, who says Vero is purposefully delaying progress to wear them down. RNZ's reporter Rachel Graham is at the protest and spoke to Meriana Johnsen
A photograph looking north-east along Williams Street in Kaiapoi. Scaffolding has been constructed up the sides of the buildings on both corners of Charles Street.
A photograph of the restored Bank of New Zealand building on the corner of Charles Street and Williams Street in Kaiapoi.
The earthquake engineering community is currently grappling with the need to improve the post-earthquake reparability of buildings. As part of this, proposals exist to change design criteria for the serviceability limit state (SLS). This paper reviews options for change and considers how these could impact the expected repair costs for typical New Zealand buildings. The expected annual loss (EAL) is selected as a relevant measure or repair costs and performance because (i) EAL provides information on the performance of a building considering a range of intensity levels, (ii) the insurance industry refers to EAL when setting premiums, and (iii) monetary losses are likely to be correlated with loss of building functionality. The paper argues that because the expected annual loss is affected by building performance over a range of intensity levels, the definition of SLS criteria alone may be insufficient to effectively limit losses. However, it is also explained that losses could be limited effectively if the loadings standard were to set the SLS design intensity considering the potential implications on EAL. It is shown that in order to achieve similar values of EAL in Wellington and Christchurch, the return period intensity for SLS design would need to be higher in Christchurch owing to differences in local hazard conditions. The observations made herein are based on a simplified procedure for EAL estimation and hence future research should aim to verify the findings using a detailed loss assessment approach applied to a broad range of case study buildings.
This poster presents preliminary results of ongoing experimental campaigns at the Universities of Auckland and Canterbury, aiming at investigating the seismic residual capacity of damaged reinforced concrete plastic hinges, as well as the effectiveness of epoxy injection techniques for restoring their stiffness, energy dissipation, and deformation capacity characteristics. This work is part of wider research project which started in 2012 at the University of Canterbury entitled “Residual Capacity and Repairing Options for Reinforced Concrete Buildings”, funded by the Natural Hazards Research Platform (NHRP). This research project aims at gaining a better understanding and providing the main end-users and stakeholders (practitioner engineers, owners, local and government authorities, insurers, and regulatory agencies) with comprehensive evidence-based information and practical guidelines to assess the residual capacity of damaged reinforced concrete buildings, as well as to evaluate the feasibility of repairing and thus support their delicate decision-making process of repair vs. demolition or replacement.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Steel bracing being attached to 169 Hereford Street".
A photograph of a member of the Diabetes Centre team standing in the entrance way to the Diabetes Centre. In the background, a carpenter is working on building repairs.
Jess Hollis, a member of the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team in their temporary office in the James Hight building. The photographer comments, "Yet another change of workplace for our E-Learning group, as the University juggles people and buildings to carry out earthquake repairs. My desk with Jess behind".
Jess Hollis, a member of the University of Canterbury's E-Learning team in their temporary office in the James Hight building. The photographer comments, "Yet another change of workplace for our E-Learning group, as the University juggles people and buildings to carry out earthquake repairs. Jess, with my desk behind".