Occupants of apartment building where panel blew off in a storm yesterday are safe, says body corporate representative

The occupants of the Auckland CBD apartment building where a panel blew off in a storm yesterday are safe and can stay put, says a body corporate spokesman.

Ian Harris, who represents residents during repairs on the high-rise apartment tower Victopia, said the loss of the panel did not mean people needed to evacuate the building.

He said about 20 per cent of the 203 apartments up to level 3 had been vacated for $40 million of remedial work that began in March. Work is expected to take about two years.

While an inspection of the building by engineers this morning had identified other lose panels, Harris said there was no issue for residents continuing to live in the building.

He said there is a double layer of cladding - an external panel, a cavity and another rigid air barrier panel before the insulation board.

"The panel that came off was at ceiling level in that apartment ... it has come off from above the window," Harris said.

After engineers inspected the building this morning and found other lose panels, plans started immediately to bring in an abseiling team to throw a net over the 42m tall apartment tower.

In parallel to this, plans are being drawn up to erect scaffolding on the face of the building fronting Victoria St West, a busy thoroughfare for a large number of vehicles and pedestrians.

This work will take at least a week - and possibly considerably longer - during which time the street will remain closed.

A WorkSafe spokeswoman said the country's health and safety regulator had not been notified about incident on Victoria St.

Auckland motorists and commuters faced significant delays this morning due to the closure of Victoria St West between Nelson and Hobson Sts.

Nelson St is also closed to traffic from the Victoria St intersection to Fanshawe St.

Early this morning, city-bound traffic coming off the Southern and Northwestern motorways clogged the intersection of Nelson St and Victoria St. From there traffic was down to a single lane and being diverted towards Victoria Park.