Damage to the Caxton Press building (left) and the adjoining building. In front is a pile of bricks, cordonned off with tape and road cones to keep the public away. Spray-painted codes show that the buildings have been checked by USAR.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 3 March 2011 entitled, "Day 10, am - inside the Christchurch cordon".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 10 September 2010 entitled, "Return to normal? Not yet!".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 26 February 2011 entitled, "Day 5, 3am - inside the Christchurch cordon".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 27 February 2011 entitled, "Day 6, 7am - inside the Christchurch Cordon".
A pdf transcript of Rae Willis's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 5 April 2011 entitled, "Day 43 - inside the red zone".
A pdf transcript of Belle's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Detail of the TimeZone window on Colombo Street. On it are posters from pre-quake, and damage is evident by the faded pink batts seen through the window. Damage to buildings across the street are also reflected in the window.
A pdf transcript of participant number LY191's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
A pdf transcript of Bernadette Cooney's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 12 December 2011, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 19 December 2011, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
A news item titled, "Council Rates Rebate", published on the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre's website on Friday, 23 September 2011.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 5 March 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 10 October 2011, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 30 July 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 6 August 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
The Catholic Cathedral is classified as a category 1 listed heritage building constructed largely of unreinforced stone masonry, and was significantly damaged in the recent Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. In the 2010 event the building presented slight to moderta damage, meanwhile in the 2011 one experienced ground shaking in excess of its capacity leading to block failures and partial collapse of parts of the building, which left the building standing but still posing a significant hazard. In this paper we discuss the approach to develop the earthquake analysis of the building by 3D numerical simulations, and the results are compared/calibrated with the observed damage of the 2010 earthquake. Very accurate records were obtained during both earthquakes due to a record station located least than 80 m of distance from the building and used in the simulations. Moreover it is included in the model the soil structure interaction because it was observed that the ground and foundation played an important role on the seismic behavior of the structure. A very good agreement was found between the real observed damage and the nonlinear dynamic simulations described trough inelastic deformation (cracking) and building´s performance.
Cordon fencing on Colombo Street. People are walking along the fence to have a look at the damaged buildings and demolition sites. The upper storeys of a building have partially collapsed.
The back entrance to the Ng art gallery building on Madras Street. The awning from Bains of Madras Street sits on the ground beside cordon fencing around a damaged building.
Damage to properties on Peterborough Street. The wall on a house has crumpled revealing the inside of the building. Fencing has been placed along the footpath to contain the building rubble.
Six months after the 4 September 2010 Mw 7.1 Darfield (Canterbury) earthquake, a Mw 6.2 Christchurch (Lyttelton) aftershock struck Christchurch on the 22 February 2011. This earthquake was centred approximately 10km south-east of the Christchurch CBD at a shallow depth of 5km, resulting in intense seismic shaking within the Christchurch central business district (CBD). Unlike the 4 Sept earthquake when limited-to-moderate damage was observed in engineered reinforced concrete (RC) buildings [35], in the 22 February event a high number of RC Buildings in the Christchurch CBD (16.2 % out of 833) were severely damaged. There were 182 fatalities, 135 of which were the unfortunate consequences of the complete collapse of two mid-rise RC buildings. This paper describes immediate observations of damage to RC buildings in the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Some preliminary lessons are highlighted and discussed in light of the observed performance of the RC building stock. Damage statistics and typical damage patterns are presented for various configurations and lateral resisting systems. Data was collated predominantly from first-hand post-earthquake reconnaissance observations by the authors, complemented with detailed assessment of the structural drawings of critical buildings and the observed behaviour. Overall, the 22 February 2011 Mw 6.2 Christchurch earthquake was a particularly severe test for both modern seismically-designed and existing non-ductile RC buildings. The sequence of earthquakes since the 4 Sept 2010, particularly the 22 Feb event has confirmed old lessons and brought to life new critical ones, highlighting some urgent action required to remedy structural deficiencies in both existing and “modern” buildings. Given the major social and economic impact of the earthquakes to a country with strong seismic engineering tradition, no doubt some aspects of the seismic design will be improved based on the lessons from Christchurch. The bar needs to and can be raised, starting with a strong endorsement of new damage-resisting, whilst cost-efficient, technologies as well as the strict enforcement, including financial incentives, of active policies for the seismic retrofit of existing buildings at a national scale.
Capacity design and hierarchy of strength philosophies at the base of modern seismic codes allow inelastic response in case of severe earthquakes and thus, in most traditional systems, damage develops at well-defined locations of reinforced concrete (RC) structures, known as plastic hinges. The 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes have demonstrated that this philosophy worked as expected. Plastic hinges formed in beams, in coupling beams and at the base of columns and walls. Structures were damaged permanently, but did not collapse. The 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes also highlighted a critical issue: the reparability of damaged buildings. No methodologies or techniques were available to estimate the level of subsequent earthquakes that RC buildings could still sustain before collapse. No repair techniques capable of restoring the initial condition of buildings were known. Finally, the cost-effectiveness of an eventual repair intervention, when compared with a new building, was unknown. These aspects, added to nuances of New Zealand building owners’ insurance coverage, encouraged the demolition of many buildings. Moreover, there was a perceived strong demand from government and industry to develop techniques for assessing damage to steel reinforcement bars embedded in cracked structural concrete elements. The most common questions were: “Have the steel bars been damaged in correspondence to the concrete cracks?”, “How much plastic deformation have the steel bars undergone?”, and “What is the residual strain capacity of the damaged bars?” Minimally invasive techniques capable of quantifying the level and extent of plastic deformation and residual strain capacity are not yet available. Although some studies had been recently conducted, a validated method is yet to be widely accepted. In this thesis, a least-invasive method for the damage-assessment of steel reinforcement is developed. Based on the information obtained from hardness testing and a single tensile test, it is possible to estimate the mechanical properties of earthquake-damaged rebars. The reduction in the low-cycle fatigue life due to strain ageing is also quantified. The proposed damage assessment methodology is based on empirical relationships between hardness and strain and residual strain capacity. If damage is suspected from in situ measurements, visual inspection or computer analysis, a bar may be removed and more accurate hardness measurements can be obtained using the lab-based Vickers hardness methodology. The Vickers hardness profile of damaged bars is then compared with calibration curves (Vickers hardness versus strain and residual strain capacity) previously developed for similar steel reinforcement bars extracted from undamaged locations. Experimental tests demonstrated that the time- and temperature-dependent strain-ageing phenomenon causes changes in the mechanical properties of plastically deformed steels. In particular, yield strength and hardness increases, whereas ductility decreases. The changes in mechanical properties are quantified and their implications on the hardness method are highlighted. Low-cycle fatigue (LCF) failures of steel reinforcing bars have been observed in laboratory testing and post-earthquake damage inspections. Often, failure might not occur during a first seismic event. However, damage is accumulated and the remaining fatigue life is reduced. Failure might therefore occur in a subsequent seismic event. Although numerous studies exist on the LCF behaviour of steel rebars, no studies had been conducted on the strain-ageing effects on the remaining fatigue life. In this thesis, the reduction in fatigue life due to this phenomenon is determined through a number of experimental tests.
Built in the early 1960s for the Lyttelton Road Tunnel, it was severley damaged in the February 2011 earthquake and is not currently used.
The Property Council says an ultimatum from the Christchurch City Council to owners of earthquake damaged commercial buildings will add to the stress business people are already under.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Earthquake damage in central Christchurch after a 6.3 earthquake. PGG-Wrightson building".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Earthquake damage in central Christchurch after a 6.3 earthquake. Destroyed Press Building".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Earthquake damage in central Christchurch after a 6.3 earthquake. Collapsed PGG building".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Earthquake damage in central Christchurch after a 6.3 earthquake. Destroyed Press Building".