Failed Tauranga car parking building: Two engineers fined, one suspended

The site between Harington and Hamilton Streets in downtown Tauranga was once intended for a multi-storey public transport hub. Photo / Google Maps

By RNZ

Two engineers have been fined, and one of them suspended for three months, over a botched car parking building that cost the Tauranga City Council millions of dollars.

The council abandoned the nine-storey Harington Street Transport Hub project in 2020 after discovering structural design deficiencies.

The council spent $25 million and sold the building for a dollar.

Engineering New Zealand investigated its complaints against three engineers.

It has now fined James Knight and suspended him from its register for three months, fined Andrew Thompson, and censured both of them. The third engineer is appealing.

The investigation found mistakes and gaps in earthquake risk calculations and design reviews.

“The alterations Mr Thompson made to the ramp beam connections crossing the separation plane created a weakness that, in an earthquake, may have led to local failure of the ramps,” said the decision summary of the disciplinary committee.

Knight did a design review and identified several deficiencies but then signed a Producer Statement that things were compliant, and the council consented it in 2018.

Consultants went on to find 39 defects, many structural, and tried to come up with an overall fix.

“The council abandoned [it] due to the significant costs that had by then been incurred and the substantial costs that would be associated with remediation,” the summary said.

Thompson, who had over 30 years’ experience and an unblemished record, had admitted being negligent with designs that had “readily identifiable errors”. The committee found “a serious lack of competence”.

He was fined $4500 and ordered to pay $20,000 costs. His application for permanent name suppression was turned down.

“Mr Thompson does not present an ongoing risk to the public.”

Structural design sign-offs rely on peer reviews by other engineers.

The summary said Knight’s approach was to check some, but not all of a design, then if they identified any issues, to accept the designer’s word they had been addressed.

At Harington, under “time pressure”, Knight found issues with ramp reinforcing, vertical loads and collector beam connections, but did not follow up properly, and missed other design problems.

“It ought to have been very apparent to Mr Knight during his peer review that the Revised Design was seriously flawed.”

He admitted his sign-off was done in an incompetent manner.

Knight also had an unblemished record. He had done professional development since Harington and the committee judged he “no longer presents as a significant risk to the public”.

He was fined $2000 with costs of $40,000, and suspended from the Chartered Professional Engineer register for three months. He did not seek permanent name suppression.

-RNZ