Thousands of unreinforced masonry building around
the country need to come down, to prevent deaths in an earthquake, the
Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes has been told.
Structural
engineer John O'Loughlin told the Royal Commission on Wednesday that
about 3800 such buildings in New Zealand cannot be made safe enough to
stand a major quake, One News reports.
The Royal Commission is
hearing evidence about buildings other than the Canterbury Television
and Pyne Gould Corporation buildings which failed in the February 22
quake, causing a loss of life.
Mr O'Loughlin told the Royal
Commission the Joe's Garage cafe on Hereford Street, which partly
collapsed in the quake, could never have held up - despite being
strengthened just five years earlier.
Chef Gregory Tobin, 25, was killed by falling masonry as he ran into the street.
"No matter how well or poorly the connections were made they were going to fail under those circumstances," Mr O'Loughlin said.
"My
personal view is structural walls comprised of bricks should be very
seriously looked at as to whether they should be replaced."
He
said the strengthening work was successful in that the building did not
collapse - and there was virtually no damage inside the cafe.
There
are 1000 buildings with unreinforced masonry in downtown Auckland, and
nearly 700 in Wellington, which could come down in a quake.
Almost all unreinforced masonry buildings in Christchurch were damaged in the February quake.
NZN