A Capital Letter: Why public servants are remaining in an earthquake-risk building

A spate of building closures last year prompted a push to fast-track new guidance clarifying seismically-vulnerable buildings can remain occupied . Photo / Mark Mitchell

OPINION

There was a spate of snap building closures in Wellington last year due to earthquake risks, but the Department of Internal Affairs is taking a different approach after the recent discovery of problems with its headquarters.

Buildings which have been abruptly vacated include the Ministry of Education’s head office, the award-winning Meridian Building, the Asteron Centre, and NZME’s Wellington office.

The closures prompted a push to fast-track new guidance clarifying that seismically-vulnerable buildings can remain occupied while remediation work is planned, funded, and undertaken.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) released the advice in July 2022, which said most buildings with low earthquake ratings were not imminently dangerous.

The Department of Internal Affairs has confirmed this advice was taken into account when it made the decision to remain in its headquarters at 45 Pipitea St in Thorndon.

A proactive engineering assessment undertaken by the landlord identified isolated areas of concern.

The Meridian building on Wellington's waterfront was abruptly vacated last year when an issue relating to the ground conditions was discovered. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The resulting draft detailed that a seismic assessment has rated parts of the building’s third level and two of the three stairways as being less than 34 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS), meaning they are earthquake-prone.

While the majority of the building is 100 per cent of the NBS, a building’s overall rating is determined by its weakest parts.

The department said that with cautious mitigation measures to address the areas of concern, engineers have found no reason why the building cannot continue to be occupied while strengthening is planned.

Staff have been given the option to work from home, but the initial indication is many will continue with their regular working arrangements.

The findings of an independent engineering assessment are expected in the coming weeks.

It’s difficult to say how influential the latest MBIE advice on occupying potentially earthquake-prone buildings was in the department’s decision to stay put.

Likewise, comparing seismically-risky buildings can be like comparing apples with oranges.

Regardless, the department’s approach sets it apart from other tenants faced with a building that wasn’t as resilient as first thought.

The first in a string of emergency exits started with the Asteron Centre in 2021, after the building’s earthquake rating plummeted.

Inland Revenue was one of several tenants who occupied the building and the government department decided to send its 1,100 staff home.

Ministry of Education staff recently vacated their building due to seismic concerns. Photo / Mark Mitchell

They were eventually relocated to temporary office space across the city and now, two years on, Inland Revenue is in the process of re-occupying the Asteron Centre after strengthening work. The move will be completed by September.

But just up the road, Mātauranga House - the former home of the Ministry of Education - remains vacant after an earthquake risk was found with that building’s concrete floors in May last year.

More than 1000 staff found themselves working from home as a result. They are now working in office space across 1 The Terrace and 8 Gilmer Tce.

The ministry and its landlord are working through confidential negotiations to reach an agreement that would allow for a complete seismic upgrade and the ministry entering into a new long-term lease.

The ministry has stopped rent payments for Mātauranga House in the meantime.

NZME’s Wellington office was also vacated last year due to seismic concerns. Temporary office space was secured at Sky Stadium as a stop-gap measure and staff now have permanent space at ANZ Tower on Tory St.

An NZME spokeswoman said the company was not comfortable allowing staff back into their former Abel Smith St office, following the completion of an independent engineering review last year.

Meridian Energy staff haven’t returned to their waterfront building either and are now located in a building at Midland Park.

Their former offices, built in 2007, have officially been deemed earthquake-prone after issues relating to the ground conditions were found.

Building owner Stride Property said some tenants have remained in the building and the company is working through strengthening options.

It appears the advice MBIE issued in the months after all these buildings were vacated has not changed the minds of the tenants who chose to exit them.

Even if it had, it would be pretty challenging telling staff their office is too unsafe to work in, only to then tell them it’s actually fine - when the physical building hasn’t changed at all.

The DHB (now Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley) have learned this the hard way at Hutt Hospital when it was found patients could not be moved out of an earthquake-risk building without their care being compromised.

There are 577 earthquake-prone buildings in Wellington.

If every tenant decided they couldn’t tolerate earthquake risks, there would literally be hundreds of empty buildings across the city.

We cannot eliminate a risk which sometimes presents in places you’d least expect, like Statistics House, built in 2005, when it partially collapsed in the Kaikōura earthquake.

Realistically, Wellington office workers have to strike the right balance between mitigation and just living with it - and that increasingly means occupying earthquake-prone buildings.

• Senior Wellington journalist Georgina Campbell’s fortnightly column looks closely at issues in the capital.