The iconic Bank of New Zealand building in Dannevirke has already had a lot of earthquake strengthening done. Photo / Leanne Warr
The iconic Bank of New Zealand building in Dannevirke has already had a lot of earthquake strengthening done. Photo / Leanne Warr
Owners of heritage-listed buildings in Dannevirke say there’s a risk the town’s best buildings could sit empty for years as owners deal with earthquake-prone building regulations.
Tararua District Council has sent out letters to owners of buildings identified as earthquake-prone requiring them to obtain engineers’ reports and if remediation workis required to complete the work within a set timeframe.
But one building owner says he has even been told to get an engineer’s report despite the council already having that information.
Dion Brandon, who owns the old Bank of New Zealand building on the corner of High St and Gordon St in Dannevirke, said when he bought the building, he was given building plans and other paperwork which showed that a lot of strengthening work had already been done.
The building, first built in 1915, was listed as a category one heritage building.
“The problem I’ve come into is even though I can prove all this, they don’t care unless they’ve got an engineer’s report. So that means I’ve got to fork out that amount of money.”
Brandon said he was given a figure of $20,000 for the report and while he may be able to get help from Heritage New Zealand, he still can’t afford that much expense.
He was not the only one facing huge costs to meet requirements around earthquake-prone buildings.
Under the 2016 Building (Earthquake-prone buildings) Amendment Act, councils were required to assess and make decisions on buildings in their district.
Tararua District Council identified earthquake-prone buildings within the district which were priority and sent letters earlier this year, advising they had seven and a half years to complete the work.
Murray Holden, vice president of the Gallery of History in Dannevirke.
According to the council, priority buildings had a heavier risk due to their location or use, for example public thoroughfares with higher density pedestrian traffic in danger in an earthquake.
Those that were not a priority would have 15 years.
There were 15 sites listed with Heritage New Zealand in Dannevirke, but the council could not say which of those were assessed as earthquake-prone as they weren’t categorised to identify heritage.
Brandon said there were a lot of owners of buildings who were not in a position to carry out the work required.
“They can’t make enough money to pay for what they’re expecting people to do.”
Dannevirke’s Gallery of History had been given a rough estimate of $1 million to complete remedial work on their building to comply with regulations.
Murray Holden said they had spoken with a structural engineer, but that was as far as they’d been able to get.
Murray Holden in the museum - a lot of work will be required on the walls and ceiling to bring it up to requirements. Photo / Leanne Warr
The museum was housed in what was once the courthouse, and was similar to the Temuka Courthouse museum, which was currently undergoing earthquake-strengthening work.
Holden believed the work required on Dannevirke’s museum would be more complicated.
“We said to the engineer we won’t be able to get the ceiling down in one piece as it’s pressed zinc.”
He said he didn’t think Heritage New Zealand would allow them to touch the ceiling because of the building’s category two status.
It had been suggested the work could be done above the ceiling but that could also be problematic because of the ceiling timbers.
“We can do it underneath the roof, but it would mean that the whole roof has got to come off. It’s a massive undertaking.”
The main problem was the museum just didn’t have the funds, as they relied solely on donations.
Dannevirke, as well as the rest of the Tararua District, was considered high risk because it was in an area with major faultlines.
Geonet earthquake geologist Russ van Dissen said a faultline was a weakness in the Earth’s crust and New Zealand sat astride two tectonic plates - Australia and the Pacific.
“They’re moving past each other, pumping energy into New Zealand. When one of these faultlines move, that’s to relieve the pressure.”
Van Dissen said masonry or chimneys were the things most likely to fail in an earthquake.
“It may cost heaps and heaps to strengthen the building so it is useable after the earthquake but it’s much less of a step to remove the things that can fall on people during moderate shaking.”
He said New Zealand needed to have some level of earthquake resilience, but the east coast of the North Island was a place where that was doubly important.
“We don’t know which will be the next fault that ruptures but we do have an expectation that the east coast of the North Island is going to get shaken by damaging earthquakes in a timeframe that is needed to be considered.”
That expectation was what the building code was about and people in Dannevirke shouldn’t be complacent.
“I do empathise with these provincial cities and towns. Money doesn’t grow on trees and it’s hard to find the funds to retrofit, even to a minimum level. But that doesn’t mean that you want your parapet and your awnings to fall down on the sidewalk.”
Seismologist Caroline Holden said the area around Dannevirke was very active, but in terms of hazards, there were more likely to be issues with liquefaction and landslides impacting infrastructure.
She said Dannevirke was a key point in connecting both Hawke’s Bay and Wellington and it was important to keep the infrastructures very strong.
There are a number of faults in the area, with the main one being the Hikurangi Subduction zone, just 20km beneath the Tararua District.
A map of faultlines in the Tararua District. Source: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/40b041e4c05148ad9007716974f57e45
One of the reasons for the legislation was to mitigate risk.
Holden explained that after the Kaikoura earthquake in 2016, there was a high risk of aftershocks in Wellington.
“It was quite a beautiful moment where science, engineers and decision makers got together and could find a solution to make people safer.”
One of those solutions was strengthening parapets and the facades in all the masonry buildings and it showed in Christchurch that where masonry buildings had been strengthened, they performed well.
“It’s something we don’t look at enough.”
Heritage New Zealand communications manager Adrienne Hannan said the heritage list provided a formal means by which heritage was identified and given status in law.
She said the Bank of New Zealand building and the Gallery of History were scheduled in the council’s district plan as heritage assets.
A National Heritage Preservation Incentive Fund was available, with priority given to earthquake remediation, but only if the owners met certain criteria - as the museum was owned by the Gallery of History Inc, it was not eligible.
Hannan said if the council had any grants or funding available for heritage buildings, Heritage New Zealand could provide a letter of support to the building owner for their application.
“In addition, our team actively support heritage building owners by providing conservation and preservation guidance and advice to maintain the heritage fabric and characteristics of buildings, and we encourage strengthening projects and adaptive re-use of heritage buildings. We also actively work with councils to provide advice as part of the district planning process, as well as on specific heritage preservation matters.”
A council spokesperson said they were more than happy to provide advice on the process, timelines and impacts if the community wasn’t sure what was required.
“We certainly empathise with the building owners and the financial impact that this legislation could have.”
