Monday 15 February 2016

Council Checking Earthquake Damage

Christchurch City Council is today checking Council-owned facilities for damage following yesterday's 5.7 earthquake. Some facilities are closed pending engineering reports; a full list will be available after 10am. The Christchurch Art Gallery will open at 10am today as usual.

Council contractors continue to check Council-owned infrastructure with no major damage reported.

No issues have been found with the city's water supply and drinking water is safe to drink.

ANZAC Bridge, Fitzgerald Twin Bridge and Gladstone Quay have been inspected and are all open. The Lyttelton Road Tunnel remains open.

A geotechnical report last night said the amount of rockfall and liquefaction was as expected for an earthquake of that acceleration near New Brighton.

Ongoing aftershock modelling meant such a quake was not unexpected, with the epicentre near the epicentre of December 2011 earthquakes. Yesterday's events confirmed that red zoning, land planning and other measures had improved Christchurch's resilience.

The Council is surveying all stopbanks to see if any have suffered damage from either subsidence or lateral spread.

Council staff have made contact with all 104 Council-owned social housing complexes. Tenant co-ordinators report no major damage, however Council staff are visiting the complexes this morning.

Some areas of the city have experienced some localised liquefaction. Residents with liquefaction on their properties can place small quantities of liquefaction material in their red rubbish bin, but no more than one third of the red bin. Residents who need help clearing liquefaction from their properties can contact the Student Volunteer Army by emailing info@sva.org.nz or messaging them via Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/StudentVolunteerArmy

The highest recorded peak ground acceleration (PGA) from this earthquake was 0.4g (PGA is a good measure of the intensity of the shaking). For contrast, the highest recorded PGA from the February 2011 M6.3 earthquake was 2.2g.

Liquefaction in Christchurch often occurs when PGA is above 0.1g and we have had many stations in northern, central, and eastern Christchurch recorded PGAs above this level. This matches the reports that have been coming in of liquefaction around the city.

Summit Road between Rapaki gate and Mt Cavendish remains closed to cyclists and pedestrians. Bridle Path and Rapaki tracks also remain closed. Further Port Hills track closures include: Eastenders track (from Barnett Park to Summit Road), Captain Thomas Track and Scarborough Bluffs Track. Rangers are out checking these areas today and geotechnical experts will be carrying out analysis on required sites.

Horncastle Arena is operating as usual. An engineer will be on site this morning to check the building. Preparation for Cirque du Soleil continues as planned.

Hadlee Pavilion at Hagley Oval is operational, however it will be fully inspected by an engineer this morning. Preparations continue for the New Zealand versus Australia test match this weekend.

In conjunction with the Christchurch Stadium Trust, AMI Stadium is closed until an engineer has completed an inspection in the next day or so.

Lancaster Park is not operational and is not accessible to the public, but we will be carrying out an inspection later this week.

Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT) is continuing checks of its more than 140 work sites, including a number of substantial projects in Parklands, New Brighton and other eastern suburbs. Preliminary checks have not identified any issues, and SCIRT expects to have completed its full assessments by the end of the day on Tuesday.

Council's Animal Management Team Leader Mark Vincent says for a while after yesterday's earthquake, there were a number of dogs running loose, but they were quickly returned to their owners.

"Most of the animals were registered so tracking down their owners was relatively simple. Things are pretty quiet today. It's a reminder of the importance of having animals registered and wearing identification tags.

"We ask people who see a stray to contact us as soon as possible, or to post details on social media. It's a really good way to re-unite owners with their animals.

"Micro-chipping is also a really good idea and the Council offers this service for free every Wednesday between 11am and noon at Metro Place in Bromley," says Mr Vincent.

All Crown-owned sites in the Port Hills have been closed and every Crown-owned site will be checked as soon as possible. Some sites will require more investigation, and these will remain closed until checked.

Orion report all power is back on for all those impacted by yesterday's earthquakes and precautionary inspections of buildings and equipment over the coming days.

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