The scour plant building and scour hall at WoolWorks Awatoto will undergo strengthening. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
The scour plant building and scour hall at WoolWorks Awatoto will undergo strengthening. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
A pair of buildings at the largest wool scourer factory in the country, on the outskirts of Napier, have featured among the latest 12 buildings to be deemed earthquake-prone around Hawke’s Bay.
A dozen buildings were added to the Earthquake-Prone Buildings (EPB) Register last week, all near Napier, with notable inclusions being two buildings at the wool scourer plant and a historic art deco building on the Emerson St shopping strip.
A list of the 12 buildings has been included below.
The impacted building owners have 15 years to strengthen their buildings and bring them up to code.
They can continue using them during that time but must display a notice to let people know of potential risks.
WoolWorks NZ owns the country’s three wool scourer plants including its largest plant at Awatoto.
The Awatoto plant on Waitangi Rd was severely flooded during Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023, and has undergone a big clean-up and rebuild and is back to full production.
Two buildings at the factory (the scour hall and scour plant building) have since been found to be earthquake-prone.
WoolWorks president Nigel Hales said while it sounded serious it was “actually a simple engineering fix” and would cost “the best part” of $1 million to strengthen.
He said they hoped to complete that work during the next 18 months and it should not interfere with operations.
“Some parts of the building are 100% and other parts need some earthquake strengthening.”
The WoolWorks Awatoto factory for scouring (cleaning) wool after it re-opened earlier this year. Photo / Warren Buckland
He said they had completed an engineer’s assessment and a report was being peer-reviewed.
“We have no up and down issue, it is a sideways movement [issue],” he said.
“It could be as simple as, if you can imagine, a triangulated bit of steel welded into a corner ... in terms of an engineering fix it is actually a simple engineering fix.”
He said it was still, quite frankly, something they could do without and “definitely an added expense”.
“Everyone with an old building is probably going to have to go through the same process,” he said.
“It’s just one of those things we have to do and we will do it as time and cash permits.”
He said they re-clad the plant following the cyclone, and the earthquake issues did not have anything to do with that work.
Rice's Building on Emerson St which is occupied by a shop and eatery. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine
Meanwhile, another notable building to be added to the EPB Register is the Rice’s Building at 143-147 Emerson St in the Napier CBD, which a retail store and eatery currently occupy.
Fourteen buildings around Hawke’s Bay have been added to the Register this year with 12 of those added last week.
The 12 buildings can continue to be used as per legislation in the Building Act 2004, Napier City Council confirmed.
New rules were introduced in 2017 for buildings found to be earthquake-prone including timeframes to fix them.
The rules have been criticised, with claims of relatively short deadlines (some deadlines were soon to expire) and significant financial burdens.
The Government has started a review of the system.
Councils have the power to identify buildings as potentially earthquake-prone at any time.
Property owners are then notified and must obtain engineering assessments of the building, carried out by suitably qualified engineers.
A building is deemed earthquake-prone depending on the degree to which it meets seismic performance requirements of the Building Code.
There are two earthquake-prone ratings: 0% to less than 20%, and 20% to less than 34%.
Councils use that information to determine whether buildings are earthquake-prone, assign ratings, issue notices to remediate and publish information about the buildings on the public EPB Register.
There are fines if a property owner does not adhere to the notices.
85 Carlyle St: Building occupied by shop and eatery*.
*Napier City Council has not determined whether the building is earthquake-prone but is proceeding as if it were due to the owner not providing an engineering assessment or not providing an adequate assessment.
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.
