Description

The document includes guidance on the appropriate criteria for the continued use of buildings, particularly those on land prone to liquefaction. Building owners, occupiers and advisors will find it useful for navigating the technical issues within the regulatory context. It aims to address perceived regulatory barriers in undertaking repairs to industrial buildings and provides robust and pragmatic solutions developed using the collective expertise of MBIE’s Engineering Advisory Group (Commercial), with input from a wider group of practitioners, from owners to advisors. 

Scope

This document is intended for the assessment and repair of industrial buildings potentially affected by the Canterbury earthquake sequence. The use of this document is limited to the three main Territorial Authorities in the Canterbury area: Christchurch, Waimakariri and Selwyn.

The focus of this document for existing buildings is:

• emphasising the key initial step of understanding the building in its current (damaged) form ȣ establishing the extent of pre-existing damage
• establishing the extent of earthquake damage
• following a triaging approach: do nothing; repair or relevel; or rebuild
• assessing and repairing where necessary (including replacement of limited numbers of elements on a comparable basis)
• identifying vulnerabilities and inadequacies ȣ concentrating on existing use, not future resale.

The focus of this document for new buildings is on the reuse of potentially liquefiable sites in ways that do not render the redevelopment uneconomic. Refer to section 5.