Decision to cordon off rather than demolish quake damaged building led to NZ man’s death.
None of the barriers erected around unreinforced masonry buildings in Christchurch after the September 2010 quakes protected against falling facades, an engineer says.
Marton Sinclair, of engineering firm Eliot Sinclair, told the Canterbury earthquakes royal commission the cordon around the building at 601-601a Colombo St was “entirely consistent” with barriers around similarly quake-damaged buildings around the city.
That building collapsed during last February’s earthquake, killing pedestrian Normand Lee, 25.
“With the benefit of hindsight I’d have to say that none of the barriers put up around the city were adequate to protect against these upper facades falling off,” Sinclair said.
Cordons placed around the building after the 2010 quake come under scrutiny at today’s hearing.
The building’s Colombo St facade collapsed during the February 2011 quake, falling outwards past the barrier, crushing Lee.
Building inspections by the firm’s engineers before the February quake focused on more serious damage to the Mollett St wall, Sinclair said. “I wasn’t ever thinking the facade would fall off in the way that it did. It didn’t raise any alarm bells.”
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