Steel Mesh Nightmare Looms for Thousands of NZ Property Owners, Worse than Leaky Homes Crisis. Steel Used in Roads and Bridges Too.

An insurance nightmare is looming for thousands of New Zealand property owners who’ve invested in buildings with reinforced concrete slabs built since 2012. There may also be serious repercussions for property prices in Auckland, and other areas with grossly over inflated values, if buildings become uninsurable because of the presence of sub-standard steel reinforcing. The…

American News Website: “Christchurch is Still a Mess…a City of Carparks”

The American news website Vice says Christchurch is still in a mess 4 years after the devastating Canterbury earthquakes, adding it has become a “city of car parks” Far from normal “…four years later Christchurch has become a city of car parks. Around 1,500 buildings have been demolished, leaving a city the size and planning density of…

Philippines May Sue Over Collapsed CTV Building – Updated

(Scroll down for updates) Following the lead of Chinese families who lost their children in the Christchurch earthquake and were offered lower than expected compensation under the NZ government’s ACC scheme, the Philippine government has said they will sue if liability is proved in the collapse of the CTV building. All of the Philippines’ dead…

Green-tagged Buildings In Christchurch Should Probably Have Received Foundation Improvements After First Quake

Today it was announced that a Royal Commission of Inquiry is to be held into the collapse of some of the buildings in the Christchurch earthquake. The inquiry “will examine issues around the built environment in the Christchurch CBD including the CTV and PGC buildings which collapsed in the disaster” Prime Minister Key said “We…

1996 Documentary Warned About Christchurch’s Earthquake Risks

In 1996 a TV documentary warned about the dangers of an earthquake in Christchurch, many of its predictions has since been proved correct. At the time this video would have been dismissed as scaremongering. Please read this blog entry in conjunction with another we wrote in December 2010 headlined “Christchurch earthquakes warned about as far…