Concrete Structure Investigations Ltd applauds the recent Government moves to make funding available for the reinforcing of parapets on buildings […]
Falling parapets – not great for people, buildings (or cars).
Concrete Structure Investigations Ltd applauds the recent Government moves to make funding available for the reinforcing of parapets on buildings in Wellington’s central city. Here is the Link to the recent Stuff.co.nz article about the timeframes and expectations of Local and National Government.
Back in October 2016, we posted a Blog about Falling Parapets and the risk they pose in Earthquake prone regions; it turned out to be a timely reminder.
This video from the Christchurch Earthquake in February 2011 demonstrates not only the spectacular failure of the walls of an unreinforced brick structure in central Christchurch, but also the incredible destruction of the facades and parapets.
This is definitely an issue for Wellington City and as we were aware of the potential problems we are very excited to see some action being taken. We do believe serious issues also exist with early pre-cast flooring systems and have been anxious about these since we first started investigating them with our non-destructive technologies several years ago. It is also good to see that these have also been pinpointed as a concern after the November Earthquakes.
Wanting to find out more about innovative structural integrity testing? Get in touch with CSI at www.csiscan.nz or phone 0800 33 7767. Winners of the 2016 Wellington Gold Awards in Emerging Services.
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I am a structural engineer and still partly involved (semi retired )in consulting work in wgtn.
went to ch ch to both large events to assist.
Every town in New Zealand has many old buildings made of unreinforced concrete, blocks, or bricks.
We all know now how they perform in an earthquake.
It’s great that the government and council are going to help pay for the strengthening of such buildings in Wellington and the surrounding area, but what about the rest of New Zealand.
If Wellington gets a subsidy, that we the tax payer fund, why doesn’t the rest of New Zealand get the same subsidy?
Hello Graham. Here at CSI Ltd we are not in either national or local Government but can have a guess at the assistance being offered in Wellington, from the information we receive.
As the earthquakes have happened so recently (and the aftershocks), and also as Wellington is quite a populated area; the urgency seems to be the factor driving the relief presently.
As building owners in Wellington CBD are under considerable pressure to have assessments and remedies completed in a very short time frame, the offer of relief is extended to them in this instance.
One assumes that if the quakes affected another area (e.g. Napier) putting people at risk immediately; the same would be offered.