Wellington Girls' College students hold a silent protest at Parliament over their earthquake-prone class block.
Video / NZ Herald
Senior journalist Georgina Campbell’s A Capital Letter column takes a deeper look at issues in Wellington, where she is based. Georgina has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
ANALYSIS
Wellington Girls’ College students are working from home after a major school building was given a low earthquake rating.
Students have protested the Ministry of Education’s handling of the classroom block outside Parliament.
The ministry plans to start strengthening works on Brook Block in early November, finishing by 2025.
On the face of it, this looks like a double standard although the ministry says occupancy decisions are “building and risk specific”.
It’s worth pointing out that schools are generally rated as being of Level 3 importance under the Building Code, unlike the ministry’s office block which is Level 2. These ratings are based on occupancy, a building’s post-disaster function and potential environmental consequences of failure in an earthquake.
Furthermore, Wellington Girls’ College claims the ministry knew about the low rating for four years but didn’t tell the school. Often it’s the keeping of a secret that hurts more than the secret itself.
Now that the school board has discovered the full extent of the seismic concerns at Brook Block, the school’s largest classroom block, students are working from home.
More than 200 of them set up a mock classroom outside Parliament on Wednesday, complete with desks, laptops, textbooks and an earthquake drill, to protest how the ministry has handled the situation.
The ministry received a report from its engineers in 2020 that said if a detailed seismic assessment of Brook Block was undertaken, it would likely be given a 15-20% New Building Standard (NBS) rating.
Anything less than 34% NBS is considered earthquake-prone.
More than 200 students set up a mock classroom outside Parliament on Wednesday, complete with desks, laptops, textbooks and an earthquake drill, to protest how the ministry has handled the situation. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The ministry said it received this information as part of a “high-level qualitative review” of a previous seismic assessment completed in 2013. It was not a detailed seismic assessment.
So, the building was not fully assessed against a new seismic rulebook which took effect in 2017. Included in those new guidelines is everything engineers have learned from recent earthquakes including those that shook Christchurch to its core.
The school says the ministry never told it about the potential low seismic rating.
The ministry says it has been working with the school since 2019 and has communicated with them about the seismic status of Brook Block and other buildings over that period.
However, the ministry accepted that “our communication with the school should have been better”.
Territorial authorities are required to identify buildings that are earthquake-prone but building owners are not obliged to proactively inform councils about the status of their buildings.
The regulator in this case, Wellington City Council, said it encouraged building owners to provide that information before the council required them to.
For example, if the council received information raising concerns about a building that was considered legitimate, then the council could write to the owner and then require more information.
The Brook Block at Wellington Girls' College. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The council said it was advised in late 2023 by the ministry that they were developing a seismic strengthening programme for buildings at Wellington Girls’ College.
School board steps in
School principal Julia Davidson said they found out in April this year that Brook Block also potentially had issues.
The board was not satisfied with the ministry’s proposal to assess the building and got its own engineers to undertake a detailed seismic assessment.
That showed the top two floors of the building had a 15% NBS rating, Davidson said.
The ministry said its risk assessment from this year, based on expert engineering advice and Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) guidelines, found the building was suitable to occupy while planning, design and remediation plans progressed.
But the school board was not comfortable with that.
The decision behind vacating ministry’s headquarters
This is very different to when the ministry abruptly vacated its Wellington headquarters at Mātauranga House on Bowen St in 2022.
It received a targeted engineering assessment that the building had a 25% NBS rating due to its concrete floors. More than 1000 MOE staff found themselves working from home just six weeks after the ministry received the report.
Ministry corporate leader Rob Campbell said occupancy decisions were “building and risk specific.”
“The NBS rating for Mātauranga House was 25% due to the concrete floors, the precast floor units and the 2014 stairs.
“All 12 floors scored below 34% NBS with the floor system consisting of hollow core precast floor units that were identified as being at risk of potential instability.”
Wellington Girls' College students are now working remotely. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Campbell said the engineer who assessed the building had no objection to the building being occupied while a remediation plan was put together.
However, after a health and safety risk assessment and advice from the Government Property Group, it was decided that staff should not remain in the building.
Those working there would have had to leave during remediation anyway, due to the invasive nature of the work, Campbell said.
“On balance, the ministry’s leadership team determined that staff within Mātauranga House could work from alternative locations with limited disruption to service delivery and therefore the decision was taken to vacate the building.
“The decision balanced the low risk to staff with the low impact of disruption and the Ministry decided to accept the disruption to reduce that risk and with the understanding we would eventually need to vacate for a prolonged period due to the required strengthening works.”
Why more people are remaining in earthquake-risk buildings
This decision was made prior to MBIE issuing new guidance around occupying earthquake-prone buildings.
MOE’s head office was one of many buildings that had been abruptly vacated including 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 could remain occupied while remediation work is planned, funded, and undertaken.
MBIE released the advice in July 2022, which said most buildings with low earthquake ratings were not imminently dangerous.
MOE says strengthening works to Brook Block are planned to get underway in early November and will be completed by Term 1 in 2025.
