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SEPTEMBER 2010

Within hours of the devastating earthquake that hit Christchurch on 4 September 2010 a team of 5 structural engineers from Harrison Grierson had been mobilised to assist the company's local staff and clients as part of the Canterbury Region Civil Defence Emergency Response Programme. Initial work focussed on assessing damage to buildings and prioritising activities to make buildings safe or to prevent them from total collapse. The work has been dangerous and Andrew Thompson, Structural Engineering team leader, stated that "all staff had been fully briefed on the extreme need for safety and caution when entering damaged buildings".

Most assessment activity has been in the inner city area where many of the older buildings had been constructed from unreinforced brick and masonry and before building codes recognised the need to design for seismic risk. All assessments have been conducted in accordance with guidelines developed by the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering and Notices have been placed on buildings according to the level of damage sustained. More detailed inspections have been conducted on a number of buildings to see if the level of restrictions can be downgraded and commercial activity can recommence, as soon as possible.

Once the Emergency Response Programme has largely been completed the region will move into the Recovery Programme where damaged buildings will be repaired and strengthened and cleared sites, where buildings once stood, will be redeveloped. Harrison Grierson is already engaged by a number of  its clients to design the repairs to historic buildings and for the conceptual designs of buildings for a 21st century Christchurch.