Tasman District Council confirmed this week that they are in the middle of reviewing all of its buildings following the devastating Christchurch earthquakes.
Those buildings include council offices, town halls, libraries and the Golden Bay service centre.
A&P property manager and treasure John Harwood also confirmed the same would happen with the northern stand at the grounds, which at capacity could hold 1000 spectators. Other structures, including the southern stand which is more than 50 years old, would also be reviewed. If the results of the review show the stands do not meet safety standards then they would be closed and possibly pulled down. However the latter would be worst case scenario for the grandstand, which is built features a lot of brick work. “If anything happens and it’s not up to scratch then we won’t be allowing people at it,” says John. “What we’ve done at this stage is made contact with Opus and they are coming to review it and until that happens we’re very much in the dark as to what it’s going to be like or what the outcome will be.”
The northern grandstand was upgraded for “earthquake purposes” in 1989, says John.
The timing of last week’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake, which was heavily felt in the Tasman region, was a fresh reminder at the importance of the buildings’ safety. No damage has been reported from the quake.
It is believed the buildings built before the 1970s are likely to be under most risk.
The reviews follow suit from the Nelson City Council who recently closed some of its buildings, including the New Hub, because of safety concerns.
TDC property manager Jim Frater explains the focus was also insuring all civil defence emergency sites are safe from earthquake damage. Previous reviews were conducted in 2006 and the results showed some areas of concern in the TDC offices, which are currently being upgraded, the Golden Bay Service Centre, the grandstand at the recreation park in Takaka, the Collingwood Memorial Hall and the Motueka District Museum. “Most of our buildings are wooden structures that are timber framed and as a consequence they don’t pose any problems compared with a concrete structure,” says Jim. “I expect that we’ll be recommending that we do some insurance tests on some buildings, just to make sure.”
An insurance audit was likely to be completed on the Richmond Library, despite being recently upgraded.
Tasman District Council expects to have its results in the coming week while A&P were still awaiting its review.
