Minister calls for building quake safety ratings

Published: 6:48PM Friday February 10, 2012 Source: ONE News

Maurice Williamson - Source: Close Up

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The Minister of Building and Construction wants to set up a mandatory scheme for buildings to display their earthquake safety standards.

The proposal from Maurice Williamson comes after a report into the collapse of Christchurch's CTV building found it failed three standards of the building code when it was built in 1986.

The six-storey building claimed 115 lives when it was flattened in the February 22 quake and subsequently caught fire.

Williamson said establishing a law which forces building owners to publicly disclose a building's ability to withstand an earthquake would allow people to make their own decisions about using it.

"If you were going to rent an apartment and you saw your building only met 30% of the earthquake standard you'd make the decision, 'I'd rather pay more for a flat in a better building,'" he said.

"Then you'd see market forces making owners lift the standards of their buildings."

Williamson said the Canterbury earthquakes had forced officials to rethink the current building code, particularly with regard to seismic activity.

He said it was possible higher standards may be introduced, but these had to be balanced off against the extra cost to builders. 

"We've put about a 35% increase in the seismic standards for new buildings (since the quakes)," he said.

"But it (the CTV report) will also make us think seriously about where we take that level for older stock.

"You could have the gold plated standard and have no one able to afford a building or have low standards and buildings be really cheap."

Meanwhile, the Department of Building and Housing is currently examining 352 structures built around the same time as the CTV building which may have similar problems in the event of a quake.

"They think it highly unlikely it'll be replicated elsewhere, but we are going to do those checks to make sure," Williamson said.

"We've inspected just about half of them, about 176, and we've found about 60 that require some further work."

Williamson won't name the other buildings on the inspection list but said the chances of another collapse like the CTV building is very unlikely.

He said CTV had a unique design which made it more vulnerable and it also failed to meet the building standards of its time.

The department hopes to have the remaining surveys completed by April.

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Minister calls for building quake safety ratings