Briefing on Safety Assessment Progress
63,823 buildings have been assessed. Of those, 1,55 residential building have been posted red so far. 340 out of 849 heritage buildings have been posted red. Of the commercial buildings placarded, 730 are red, 756 yellow, and 2029 are green. Controversies about the deconstruction of a few heritage buildings are brewing. 24 buildings have been approved […]
Documenting the Performance of Retrofitted URM Buildings
In that process dozens of additional buildings were added to the list of roughly 60 buildings that appeared to have some seismic improvements visible from the exterior, or that, by word of mouth, were reportedly partially or systematically (completely) retrofitted at some time in their life. The range of partial retrofits may be from the […]
A Look at Building Stock and Insurance Impacts
A seismogram at Heathcote Valley, which is located one kilometer from the epicenter, recorded PGA (Peak Ground Acceleration) as high as 1.4 g. However, while no complete collapses were observed, fallen chimneys were widespread. In the hillside town of Lyttleton, about four km away from the epicenter, except for the collapse of old masonry buildings and a […]
Draft Central City Plan – Christchurch Rebuilding Proposal
For more information, read this news article: Plan to build a ‘city in a garden’ Read the plan: Draft Central City Plan – August 2011 (8.0 MB PDF)
Reports from the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission
Read the Reports: The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission – Final Report There are also many technical reports available on this website, written by EERI members and colleagues. These technical reports discuss various structural and geotechnical engineering issues.
Observations from the EERI Team
Figure 1. Pyne Gould collapsed. Figure 2. Structural failure in columns. Day 1: After Triage and Observations Today I helped with the triage of buildings in the North-East Quadrant of the CBD (approximately 20+ blocks). The goal was to identify any buildings where there may still be people trapped […]
Reconnaissance observations
The Central Business District (CBD) was particularly hit hard. Indeed both earthquakes caused the collapse here of many seismically vulnerable URM buildings built between 1885 and 1920s. Unlike the first quake, which hit the city at midnight when the CBD was empty, the second quake fiercely shook the city at 12.51pm when many people were […]
Observations from the EERI Team
Today was the first full day here in Christchurch. The day kicked off at a Geotechnical Coordination meeting where rockfall/landslide hazard and risk assessment teams were coordinating their efforts. There’s an ongoing systematic effort by ~7 teams of engineering geologists and geotechnical engineers to assess the risk to homes in the eastern suburbs. This followed with a quick reconnaissance […]
Observations from the EERI Reconnaissance Team
The goal is to begin opening downtown sections of the Christchurch Business District (CBD) and to give the government a clear idea of the status of all the buildings. I was teamed with Fred Turner, Roberto Leon and Bob Gray who was our New Zealand CPEng. We also had two urban search and rescue personnel, […]