Footpaths close after quake risk alert

Craig Thew, Hastings District Council Group Manager of Asset Management, said the council would also be doing some work on securing parts of the building. Photo / Glenn Taylor

Footpaths and carparks outside the Hawke's Bay Opera House will be fenced off from today, as the Hastings District Council takes further steps to deal with the earthquake-prone building.

Council staff and contractors will this morning begin to put up a 2-metre high fence on the Heretaunga St and Hastings St frontages of the historic building, which was closed in March when engineers deemed it an earthquake risk.

The council's group manager of asset management, Craig Thew, described the chances of debris from the building falling on passers-by if an earthquake hit the city as a "low probability" but said, from a regulatory and safety perspective, the council was required to take action to minimise any potential danger to the public.

Mr Thew said the council would also be doing some work on securing parts of the building, particularly around its parapets.

The council this week received an independent report into why the building remained an earthquake risk despite an expensive restoration and strengthening project carried out between 2001-08.

The report found no one could be held liable for the earthquake-prone state of the building, given best practice measures had generally been used at the time of the upgrade.

The report said building strengthening technology and approaches to the type of restoration undertaken by the council had changed significantly since then, however, with one factor for the changes being the Christchurch earthquakes.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said the findings of the independent report, and subsequent advice, had led to the council decision to close off the building's frontage as a safety precaution.

Until this week, engineers had not been in agreement about what precautionary measures were most appropriate, he said.

The fencing around the building is likely to remain for some time.

The council has asked three firms to submit plans and concepts for undertaking strengthening work on the building, and it has given them a deadline of the end of January next year to submit those ideas.

The plans will be considered by the council in February and repair work will start after that.

The cost of repairs is expected to be several million dollars.