Northland's earthquake risk now seen as low

Paul Cook, the new building compliance manager at Whangarei District Council whose team oversees seismic strengthening across the district. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A whopping 14,000 structures across Northland have been axed from the list of those needing seismic strengthening, as the Building and Housing Minister has officially downgraded the earthquake risk of the region.

Northland is now categorised as low risk and Minister Dr Nick Smith told the Advocate that structures such as farm sheds, retaining walls, fences, wharves and storage tanks were now excluded from the amendment to the 2004 Building Act, expected to be passed later this year.

The sweeping changes in the draft act also mean owners of Northland commercial properties will have 15 years to assess and 35 years to strengthen buildings to 34 per cent of the modern standards for new builds.

Plans were also under way to create a public national register and website of "earthquake-prone" buildings.

Buildings in Northland which were not up to spec would also have to place notices at the entrance to inform tenants and customers - a red notice for those under 20 per cent and orange for those below the 34 per cent standard.

The Minister said the changes would save the region's farmers millions in building compliance costs.

"The buildings now remaining on the Northland list are unreinforced masonry buildings that pose the greatest risk."

He said 9000 farm buildings had been removed from the list as it was "hard to justify to farmers that the hay shed which they might spend an hour a week in required earthquake risk assessment, but the farm house which the family slept in every night did not". This brings the number of Northland structures requiring compliance from 15,000 to just 1000.

The new building compliance manager at Whangarei District Council, Paul Cook, said the Whangarei City Corporation embarked on a seismic survey in 1976, after quakes in San Francisco.

"And another under the 1991 Building Act. It actively dealt with its high risk buildings such as non-reinforced masonry buildings and these buildings were subject to upgrade."

There was one commercial building in the CBD which was yet to be assessed, while a number of older buildings, such as The Grand Hotel on Bank St, were still undergoing structural improvements.

Northland Regional Council had already assessed and strengthened its Whangarei headquarters, as well as its large building on Robert St, (home of the Northern Advocate). The old Countdown building in Whangarei had yet to be assessed as its future was unknown.

There were three older, vacant buildings in the CBD and one occupied which required assessment, while the NRC site offices at Kaitaia and Dargaville were also due for inspection.

Meanwhile, Tim Grafton, chief executive of the Insurance Council said the change would not impact insurance costs in Northland, however, as companies already considered Northland's low vulnerability to earthquakes when weighing up insurance costs, which was at the discretion of individual providers.