Gisborne building inspectors to help out in Christchurch

Gisborne District Council has sent four building inspectors who worked in the December 2007 Gisborne earthquake to Christchurch today (Wednesday 8 September) to help with the enormous job of assessing buildings for earthquake damage.

Ian Petty who heads Gisborne District Council’s building services team has been requested specifically by his Christchurch City Council counterpart for assistance. Mr Petty and his team were the first in New Zealand to use the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) building safety evaluation guidelines. The red - unsafe do not enter, yellow – no entry except on essential business, and green - no restriction notices were first trialled in Gisborne and are being widely used in the Christchurch response.

Building inspectors - Bruce Smith, Greg Morley and Mike White - will join Mr Petty as part of a national request for 60 additional inspectors to work for the next three days to help get through the current backlog of inspections and re-inspections.

The inspectors will be able to draw on their experience as the response to the Christchurch earthquake has many similarities with the response to the Gisborne earthquake. Both had a significant affect on the Central Business District resulting in the areas being cordoned off. Gisborne also used teams of Urban Search and Research members, building inspectors and engineers to go through every city centre building. Fortunately after two days the Gisborne CBD was able to open for business with barricades in place around the 23 red-tagged buildings

The remaining Gisborne Construction Inspectorate staff will maintain business as usual during their absence.

ENDS

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