Invercargill City Council begins building inspections in CBD and Bluff

Friday, 29 June 2018

Invercargill City Council development liaison manager Simon Tonkin, outside the Cornerstone church - the first of about 270 buildings the council will inspect in the CBD and Bluff to determine whether any are earthquake prone.

No commercial buildings in Invercargill have been designated as earthquake prone by the city council but staff have begun inspections to see if any are.

An earthquake-prone building is often referred to as one that meets less than 34 per cent of the new building standard.

The council began its work this month following changes to legislation last year.

Development liaison manager Simon Tonkin, who is doing the inspections, said the council had identified the priority areas for inspections as the Invercargill CBD and Bluff's main street.

All 268 building owners in those priority areas had been told that the council would assess their buildings to establish whether they were earthquake prone.

The council could not order a building to be closed if it was less than 34 per cent of the national building standard.

'This decision is up to the building owner.'

The two priority areas in Invercargill and Bluff had been broken up into 23 blocks, and it was expected inspections on each block would take a month to complete.

The first building to be inspected by Tonkin is the Cornerstone building on the corner of Clyde and Tay streets.

He would inspect the exterior of the buildings and assess them against a checklist prescribed by the Government.

If the building met certain criteria on the checklist, the council would ask the owner to obtain an engineer's assessment on the building.

The building owner must then obtain that assessment within one year, and provide it to the council.

'We will then review the assessment against another checklist to establish if the building is earthquake prone,' Tonkin said.

'If it is, we issue an earthquake prone notice to the building owner.'

The owner would then have either 12.5 years or 25 years to bring the building up to more than 34 per cent of the New Building Standard, or demolish it.

Buildings in the soon-to-be redeveloped CBD block, consisting of Esk, Dee, Tay and Kelvin streets, would be among those to be assessed, despite HWCP engineers having already inspected most of them.

Tonkin said the council had to follow its own process, as set out by the Government.

The Southland Museum and Art Gallery and the Water Tower, which have both been closed for safety reasons but not designated as earthquake prone, would be assessed near the end of 23-month time frame, Tonkin said.