I'm scrolling through the Guardian's coverage of the quake and next thing I know I see a photo of that building which might collapse in Molesworth St - credited to Yakcall. Random.
Haha, random. Guess they stole it off twitter as I posted on there. Building is near my work
Use your new found fame wisely....
The 13:46 update on this live blog BTW: New Zealand earthquake officially upgraded to magnitude 7.8 – as it happened
Thank feck it struck more or less away from any major population centres, theoretically something far less powerful magnitude wise could wreak havoc if occurring in the right (see: wrong) place.
I felt it all the way up in the Waikato, which is saying something. Felt slightly less violent than the offshore September one (no doubt due to the proximity) but seemed to last a heck of a lot longer. Drapes were swaying back and forth for a good while afterwards. My immediate reaction, naturally enough, was to head to twitter to verify I wasn't losing my marbles and had indeed felt an earthquake.
Apparently Courtney Central is shut (probably because of the carpark again). After the 2013 earthquake that carpark was shut for months while it was strengthened (with everyones cars stuck in it), I know they had welders from the Taranaki oil rig in town fixing it so obviously the strengthening wasn't as good as hoped.
shut for months while it was strengthened (with everyones cars stuck in it)
decent way to issue 'tickets' for 4 straight months of parking infringements.
If it is Wilsons, you can pretty much guarantee that Patrick. THEY ARE BASTARDS.
Apparently Courtney Central is shut (probably because of the carpark again). After the 2013 earthquake that carpark was shut for months while it was strengthened (with everyones cars stuck in it), I know they had welders from the Taranaki oil rig in town fixing it so obviously the strengthening wasn't as good as hoped.
I was told by one of the workers it would not last and should have been pulled down.
The south side has sunk and is leaning toward Courtenay place. It's coming down by man or nature!
anyone had any experience of claims with EQC? We have some minor damage to our flat and our body corp has put a claim in but I was wondering if this is something that is likely to be resolved in weeks, months or years.
Plan on years FM
just got a copy of engineers report for the apartment building. Key figures 0.2 g ground movement which is only 20% of the building current design. So Read it as the building is rated to 1 g.
From Wiki
| Standing on the Earth at sea level–standard | 1 g |
| Shock capability of mechanical wrist watches[25] | > 5,000 g |
Sorry Frankie but those clowns still havent finished with Christchurch. Expect a long weight. plan for the worst, hope for the best.
Doesn't seem like our journalists are asking serious questions as to why these newish buildings are not able to survive these earthquakes. Queensgate cinema, readings car park, state services. Surely they will launch an enquiry. Someone's head needs to roll. It's embarrassing.
I've heard that Te Papa are already planning on a 2 storey aquarium should Wellington suffer a really big quake. The ground floor and the first floor.
Doesn't seem like our journalists are asking serious questions as to why these newish buildings are not able to survive these earthquakes. Queensgate cinema, readings car park, state services. Surely they will launch an enquiry. Someone's head needs to roll. It's embarrassing.
My work is a 1940s building, 8 storeys high, and they inspected the whole thing in 2 hours. There's massive cracks in the plaster and in some places you can see the crack extends deep into concrete behind the plaster. I'm not a structural engineer but two hours seems like very little time to assess whether any of the load bearing structures are damaged and what that might mean for the integrity of the building. Especially as there's at least maybe 50 pillars per floor - 50x8 = 400. Can you check 400 pillars in 120 minutes, let alone floors, ceilings, the roof, stairwells, lift shafts etc? Then you hear about people returning to work for a few days only to get evacuated again because there some damage which was missed in the initial inspection. Scary stuff.
Doesn't seem like our journalists are asking serious questions as to why these newish buildings are not able to survive these earthquakes. Queensgate cinema, readings car park, state services. Surely they will launch an enquiry. Someone's head needs to roll. It's embarrassing.
My work is a 1940s building, 8 storeys high, and they inspected the whole thing in 2 hours. There's massive cracks in the plaster and in some places you can see the crack extends deep into concrete behind the plaster. I'm not a structural engineer but two hours seems like very little time to assess whether any of the load bearing structures are damaged and what that might mean for the integrity of the building. Especially as there's at least maybe 50 pillars per floor - 50x8 = 400. Can you check 400 pillars in 120 minutes, let alone floors, ceilings, the roof, stairwells, lift shafts etc? Then you hear about people returning to work for a few days only to get evacuated again because there some damage which was missed in the initial inspection. Scary stuff.
I very much doubt after Christchurch engineers would declare a building safe unless they were 100% satisfied. I had to provide evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry after the Christchurch earthquake on just this point and the engineers involved received an absolute grilling, it was all streamed on the internet and the documents are all public record, I have no doubt every engineer in the country was following the inquiry and none of them would ever want to go through that, or have a loss of life based on their decision.
It's simply not worth the risk of loosing your job or even going to jail to open a building early.
Engineers don't inspect the building in 2 hours, they spend 2 hours on site and take meticulous records, videos, and photos. If they built the building or strengthened it recently then they're going to have 3d models that they can run through a simulator, otherwise they will have the plans. They will then spend hours going over the videos and photos and compare any signs of stress to the plans, they know exactly what to look for and all the tell tale signs. If they're worried they will do a more invasive check. They will inform the building owner and the building owner is obliged to inform the tenants, the council, and civil defense if there are any concerns.
Doesn't seem like our journalists are asking serious questions as to why these newish buildings are not able to survive these earthquakes. Queensgate cinema, readings car park, state services. Surely they will launch an enquiry. Someone's head needs to roll. It's embarrassing.
My work is a 1940s building, 8 storeys high, and they inspected the whole thing in 2 hours. There's massive cracks in the plaster and in some places you can see the crack extends deep into concrete behind the plaster. I'm not a structural engineer but two hours seems like very little time to assess whether any of the load bearing structures are damaged and what that might mean for the integrity of the building. Especially as there's at least maybe 50 pillars per floor - 50x8 = 400. Can you check 400 pillars in 120 minutes, let alone floors, ceilings, the roof, stairwells, lift shafts etc? Then you hear about people returning to work for a few days only to get evacuated again because there some damage which was missed in the initial inspection. Scary stuff.
I very much doubt after Christchurch engineers would declare a building safe unless they were 100% satisfied. I had to provide evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry after the Christchurch earthquake on just this point and the engineers involved received an absolute grilling, it was all streamed on the internet and the documents are all public record, I have no doubt every engineer in the country was following the inquiry and none of them would ever want to go through that, or have a loss of life based on their decision.
It's simply not worth the risk of loosing your job or even going to jail to open a building early.
Engineers don't inspect the building in 2 hours, they spend 2 hours on site and take meticulous records, videos, and photos. If they built the building or strengthened it then they're going to have 3d models that they can run through an simulators, otherwise they will have the plans. They will then spend hours going over the videos and photos and compare any signs of stress to the plans, they know exactly what to look for and all the tell tale signs. If they're worried they will do a more invasive check. They will inform the building owner and the building owner is obliged to inform the tenants, the council, and civil defense if there are any concerns.
Doesn't seem like our journalists are asking serious questions as to why these newish buildings are not able to survive these earthquakes. Queensgate cinema, readings car park, state services. Surely they will launch an enquiry. Someone's head needs to roll. It's embarrassing.
Doesn't seem like our journalists are asking serious questions as to why these newish buildings are not able to survive these earthquakes. Queensgate cinema, readings car park, state services. Surely they will launch an enquiry. Someone's head needs to roll. It's embarrassing.
But these buildings did what they needed to do and survived the earthquake. I'm not an engineer but from what I gather a building isn't designed to go through an earthquake unscathed, it's designed to get through an earthquake with it's occupants still alive. So modern buildings move in an earthquake and have built in flexibility which increases the stress. Older buildings are built tougher, they are strong and don't move as much in an earthquake, but strength is brittle and when they go they will likely collapse crushing the occupants.
One thing that we're not quite realising is this was a very big event. While it didn't have the devastating acceleration that the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch had (which was the highest acceleration in an earthquake ever measured at the time) it still was a huge earthquake and put a lot of stress on our structures.
This was the second biggest earthquake in NZ since Europeans have lived here, i.e. in locally recorded history. And while the epicenter was quite far away from Wellington most of the energy was released 100km north of that epicenter and much closer to us.
While it did have that disastrous acceleration the Christchurch earthquake only lasted ten seconds, this north Canterbury earthquake lasted something like two minutes. Something that was not widely reported is that quite a few of the buildings still standing in Christchurch shouldn't have been and even more were just a second or two away from collapsing so time is very important.
So of course it wasn't of the scale that the Earthquake that hit Christchurch that that shouldn't be a base measurement. It was a huge earthquake and very damaging in it's own but different way.
Doesn't seem like our journalists are asking serious questions as to why these newish buildings are not able to survive these earthquakes. Queensgate cinema, readings car park, state services. Surely they will launch an enquiry. Someone's head needs to roll. It's embarrassing.
I don't think it's necessary to have an enquiry.
But it is the medias job to dig, ask questions, hold people to account and enquire.
At least it used to be, until they just became an aggregator of social media and entertainment news.
Doesn't seem like our journalists are asking serious questions as to why these newish buildings are not able to survive these earthquakes. Queensgate cinema, readings car park, state services. Surely they will launch an enquiry. Someone's head needs to roll. It's embarrassing.
That's up to the government if they choose to
We live in city prone to earthquakes. I don't know what the minimum standards are but with improved technology and all they know now, it doesn't make sense to me that those new buildings haven't done as well as they should have. Seems to me like short cuts have been made in a rush to get these buildings up and leased out.
I wonder how many people have been affected by this cause they can't open their business or work or have to find somewhere else to live.
We are lucky it was not centered in Wellington.
but the buildings did exactly as well as they should have. They didn't collapse in on anybody.
It's like a helmet, stops you get your head smashed in, after that it'll be weaker so you check it out and decide if it can still protect you or if you need a new one.
Compare this to the Napier earthquake in 1931 where hundreds died and thousands were injured and you can see how good buildings are today compared to the past.
It's the glass towers that worry me, that BNZ on the water front is just begging to send glass everywhere while it pancakes downwards.
but the buildings did exactly as well as they should have. They didn't collapse in on anybody.
It's like a helmet, stops you get your head smashed in, after that it'll be weaker so you check it out and decide if it can still protect you or if you need a new one.
Compare this to the Napier earthquake in 1931 where hundreds died and thousands were injured and you can see how good buildings are today compared to the past.
'Not collapsing' is a pretty low target
indestructible is a pretty high target.
It seems like people have forgotten just how big of a quake it was.
It's the glass towers that worry me, that BNZ on the water front is just begging to send glass everywhere while it pancakes downwards.
70% of all the energy in earthquakes in NZ in the last 7 years (including the Chch quakes) was released in this one. That's fudgeing huge, even if it wasn't right under the city (and thank fudge it wasn't). The equivalent of 10 Darfield quakes simultaneously.
indestructible is a pretty high target.
It seems like people have forgotten just how big of a quake it was.
There are buildings that are closed that could have been avoided with foresight
We humans have pretty high expectations that we can control everything. We should know by now that we can only do our best. Take football for example....
Good article about why modern buildings failed in the quake
Did anyone feel the Quake at 18:15? 4.7, 15km deep and 15km SE of Seddon? Was a decent shake.
Didn't seem any bigger than any of the other aftershocks, although where we are in the hills above Karori you don't feel them much.
One right now as I'm cruising the forums at 11.09pm near Whakatane.
Holy mother fudgeing hell. Seddon/ Wellington just had a reasonable on
Had a 5.1 happen about 30 kms from where I am at 03:08.
Had a 5.1 happen about 30 kms from where I am at 03:08.
That's a good sized shake
Tuesday night 23:57 a 2.6 quake 5kms deep under Upper Hutt. I heard the noise but there was no shake. made it onto geonet. Tonight another at 8kms deep and it shook the building I am currently in. same strength. Upper Hutt getting ready for a big one??
NZ has 20,000 earthquakes every year most aren't the forewarner of a big one.
