As Auckland and Northland brace for more atrocious weather, city leaders are calling for funding to repair the city's broken infrastructure to be along the lines of the help given to Christchurch after the quakes. Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson says that the damage so far is equivalent to the biggest non earthquake event the country has ever had and should be treated accordingly. The Opportunities Party says the "alliance" model established after the earthquakes, was effective and would work for Auckland's rebuild, because it provides a structure that the Central Government can fund directly. ToP leader Raf Manji was a Christchurch councillor after the quakes and closely involved in the rebuild. He tells Kathryn Ryan it is vital to ensure water and transport infrastructure is repaired quickly and efficiently, especially with a view to future extreme weather events - and there is much to learn from the post-quake rebuild.
Glazing systems are non-structural elements in a building that, more often than not, appear to be given little consideration in seismic design. Recent experimental work into glazing systems at the University of Canterbury, however, has shown that glazing systems can be very susceptible to serviceability damage, defined as loss of water-tightness. The focus of this paper is to highlight the difference in vulnerability of standard and seismic glazing systems and consider the implications of this for future repair costs and losses. The paper first describes the damage states chosen for glazing units according to the repair strategies required and expected repair costs. This includes three damage states: DS1: Water Leakage, DS2: Gasket Failure and DS3: Frame/Glass Failure. Implementing modern performance-based earthquake engineering, the paper proceeds to highlight a case study comparing costs and expected losses of a standard glazing unit and a seismic glazing unit installed on a case study building. It is shown that the use of seismic glazing units is generally beneficial over time, due to the early onset of serviceability damage in standard glazing units. Finally, the paper provides suggestions for designers aimed at reducing costs related to earthquake induced repairs of glazing.
More than four years after earthquakes first damaged home in Christchurch, hundreds of Canterbury homeowners are finding out that they may have to wait another two years before their damaged homes are repaired.
A project manager for a company doing home repairs in the Christchurch earthquake rebuild says it is highly likely as many as 60-thousand people have been exposed to potentially lethal asbestos fibres.
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.
Workers repairing the James Hight building at the University of Canterbury, seen from inside the library. 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. Our area looks over a central roof space that has seating areas. It may be a while before we're allowed out there though".
Some 10 years on from the devastating Canterbury quakes, the wait is still not over when it comes to law changes needed to improve the Earthquake Commission. The government will not get it done until 2021, if it's re-elected. Meanwhile cases of botched quake repairs needing a fix are still flooding into EQC, Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods told Checkpoint.
Christchurch's Blessed Sacrament Cathedral was set to be repaired following the Canterbury earthquakes, but the new Bishop Paul Martin has decided it's too expensive and has decided to rebuild closer to the city centre.
A photograph captioned, "After the September earthquake, it was more a simple case of something gets broken and it gets repaired. Then came February, and June as well, and suddenly it's just not so straightforward anymore".
A photograph of the damaged Provincial Council Chambers 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.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "the Edmonds Clock Tower heavily braced. (time stopped at 12:51, the moment of the Feb 22, 2011 earthquake) (the tower has subsequently been partly deconstructed for repair )".
The Earthquake Commission has admitted its privacy breach was almost 10 times worse than it had said, with the details of all 83-thousand clients in its Canterbury Home Repair programme being emailed out.
Almost 200 workers in Christchurch have lost their jobs with the closure of the Canterbury Spinners Plant - which the owners say was so badly damaged in last month's earthquake that it is beyond repair.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Furniture maker Bertram Rush and his building survived the earthquake. He's still open, hearing from people with damaged cabinets, and has been busy helping a customer to repair his home".
The cartoon shows an enormous ball of red tape and all around frustrated workers carry away their ladders and tools. Context - Three months after a quake that scored a direct hit under Christchurch, many residents are struggling with mountains of paperwork required to get their homes repaired and rebuilt. Reference numbers, codes and Pin numbers permeate our daily living now as we deal with the aftermath of two major earthquakes in six months. People feel they are lucky that they have the EQC pot to draw on, but there are a lot of complexities, anomalies and frustrations. (BBC News 21 May 2011) Colour and black and white versions available Quantity: 2 digital cartoon(s).
Text at top left reads 'Earthquake... aftershock... or "new event"... one thing remains constant...' Below is a snail with 'EQC payments' printed on its shell. Context - This is a reference to the problems that Christchurch people are having in getting payments from the EQC (Earthquake Commission) Disgruntled tradespeople who are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by EQC are considering legal action. Remaining unpaid can mean that companies may have to consider laying people off. The Amalgamated Workers Union says delays in EQC payments for housing repair work in quake-hit Christchurch are building to a crisis point. Two versions of this cartoon are available Quantity: 2 digital cartoon(s).
A signpost pointing 'West' and 'East'. The sign pointing West is intact; that indicating East is broken and barely hanging on to the post. Refers to the condition of Christchurch City after the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011; the western wealthier suburbs were less damaged than the poorer Eastern suburbs. Also, progress on repair and rehabilitation of eastern housing had been slow. The redesign of the city centre seemed to be a western suburb priority which ignored the poverty and misery of living conditions on the east. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
A view across Madras Street to St Pauls Trinity-Pacific Presbyterian Church. Scaffolding has been constructed around the building to enable repairs to be made. The church was damaged in the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
While it's going to take several years and millions of dollars to repair earthquake damage, the Christchurch Arts Centre can count its lucky stars and look ahead to making the historic building better and stronger.
Despite Government pressure on the Christchurch City Council to sell off some of its assets to help fund its 40% share of the city's earthquake repairs, the council has instead decided to raise rates, and rents.
The Earthquake Commission has admitted the details of all 83-thousand clients in its Canterbury Home Repair programme have been accidentally emailed to the wrong place, not just the almost 10 thousand it said on Friday
During recent earthquake repairs at a residential property on well-known Sumner Road in Lyttelton, our archaeologists uncovered a small assemblage of artefacts that represented everyday Victorian household items. At first glance these appeared a somewhat ordinary – but when Lydia … Continue readi...
The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes, which involved widespread damage during the February 2011 event and ongoing aftershocks near the Christchurch Central Business District, left this community with more than $NZD 40 billion in losses (~20 % GDP), demolition of approximately 60 % of multi-storey concrete buildings (3 storeys and up), and closure of the core business district for over 2 years. The aftermath of the earthquake sequence has revealed unique issues and complexities for the owners of commercial and multi-storey residential buildings in relation to unexpected technical, legal, and financial challenges when making decisions regarding the future of their buildings impacted by the earthquakes. The paper presents a framework to understand the factors influencing post-earthquake decisions (repair or demolish) on multi-storey concrete buildings in Christchurch. The study, conducted in 2014, includes in-depth investigations on 15 case-study buildings using 27 semi-structured interviews with various property owners, property managers, insurers, engineers, and government authorities in New Zealand. The interviews revealed insights regarding the multitude of factors influencing post-earthquake decisions and losses. As expected, the level of damage and repairability (cost to repair) generally dictated the course of action. There is strong evidence, however, that other variables have significantly influenced the decision on a number of buildings, such as insurance, business strategies, perception of risks, building regulations (and compliance costs), and government decisions. The decision-making process for each building is complex and unique, not solely driven by structural damage. Furthermore, the findings have put the spotlight on insurance policy wordings and the paradoxical effect of insurance on the recovery of Christchurch, leading to other challenges and issues going forward.
One landscape colour digital photograph taken on 28 February 2011 showing the plume of water from a broken water main. The plume appears to be in the vicinity of the Bridle Path. Photograph taken looking west from the corner of Canterbury and Ripon Streets. Repairing infrastructure following the Canterbury Earthquakes has proved to be a complex...
A photograph of St John's Anglican Church in Hororata. The spire of the church, which partially collapsed in the 4 September earthquake, has been boarded up in order to protect the building from rain. This photograph was modelled off an image taken by BeckerFraserPhotos in October 2010.
A photograph of St John's Anglican Church in Hororata. The spire of the church, which partially collapsed in the 4 September earthquake, has been boarded up in order to protect the building from rain. This photograph was modelled off an image taken by BeckerFraserPhotos in October 2010.
Scaffolding erected around St Pauls Trinity-Pacific Presbyterian Church on the corner of Cashel and Madras Streets to enable repairs to be made to the building. The church was damaged in the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
Scaffolding erected around St Pauls Trinity-Pacific Presbyterian Church on the corner of Cashel and Madras Streets to enable repairs to be made to the building. The church was damaged in the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
Scaffolding erected around St Pauls Trinity-Pacific Presbyterian Church on the corner of Cashel and Madras Streets to enable repairs to be made to the building. The church was damaged in the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
Scaffolding erected around St Pauls Trinity-Pacific Presbyterian Church on the corner of Cashel and Madras Streets to enable repairs to be made to the building. The church was damaged in the 4 September 2010 earthquake.