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Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission

A short guide to some documents of heritage interest.


Volume 4 which deals with unreinforced masonry buildings their strengthening and performance is of the greatest heritage interest.

Volume 4: Earthquake-prone buildings 
Section 4: Individual unreinforced masonry buildings that caused fatalities (.docx)
Section 5: Unreinforced masonry buildings and their performance in earthquakes (.docx) 
Section 7: Earthquake-prone buildings policy and legislation  (.docx)
Appendix 1: Seismic retrofit case studies

The focus on the CTV building has meant CCC has got of with relatively little attention to its performance with dealing with sub-standard buildings prior to the earthquakes. It is described as passive. Undoubtedly this passivity contributed to the death toll. 
Much of the rest oft the commission's report is highly technical - and  only specialist structural engineers will cope with all the detail. Still a skim through these will give some general points. 

Vol 2: The Performance of Christchurch CBD Buildings
Vol 6: Canterbury Television Building (CTV)

With the CTV building the commission coped admirably with a very difficult task:
  • Interpreting the design against the standards and bylaws of the day which were not well developed or consistent
  • Applying judgement as to what prudent engineering practice would have been at the time
  • Witnesses who were sometimes less than forthcoming on their roles.
The design inadequacies and the missed opportunities to correct them are a very unhappy chapter in New Zealand's professional engineering.




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