VPN online users at my work for the last month.

Looks to be a 1960's to 70's built office building. All that land around there is reclaimed from the harbour isn't it?

DarthKermit: All that land around there is reclaimed from the harbour isn't it?

Molesworth St?  No, doubt it is reclaimed.  The plaques about the historic foreshore are on Lambton Quay (which is why it's curved) - so all the reclaimed land is from there towards the current harbour.  This is most of Featherston Street, for example (which is why that area is so badly damaged).

Molesworth St runs from about that end of Lambton Quay uphill towards the Tinakori Hill, so is 90 degree right angle (more or less) running away from the reclaimed land.

Fred99:

 

PolicyGuy:

 

 

 

And we'll end up paying the bill either through rates, taxes or insurance premiums.

 

 

 

 

it'll be interesting to see if the present quake sequence and the apparent "waking up" of seismicity in NZ will have on insurance.

 

After Chch all of the global reinsurers were talking about pulling all reinsurance for EQ from NZ.  Gerry jumped on a plane and went to London to meet with them.  To his credit, he probably saved the day.  

 

If we do get another event causing damage in the tens of billions of $$$, I suspect NZ will be in the cold.  The local insurers can't afford to carry the risk, and EQC coffers are empty.

 

Not sure how the banks would react - but probably not very generously - to the concept that they're exposed to considerable risk.

 

John Key said the books are in great shape so there is no issue there. That was referring to SI though. Buildings arent his problem though. But re reinsurers, they may back out or increase rates significantly, and I guess if and when that happens, when now probably, its too bad, the building owners, and thus the leasees will have to bear that.

And the Alpine Fault is the big unknown. Its due. Might be in 10 minutes, 10 years or 100 years. But from its pattern, Id have to think less than 100 years. These last few years of activity can't be helping.

Fred99:

 

The engineering going in to some buildings in Chch is astounding.  In particular the justice precinct and new hospital - the objective being that the buildings don't just need to be "survivable" for occupants, but the buildings must be able to remain operational.  The cost is horrendous.  They also scare me a bit - as the amount of bracing, size of structural components, the foundations, everything is so overwhelmingly strongly engineered it brings to mind how relatively flimsy most buildings are and if that's needed then I shudder to think what the event they're being built to survive will be like.

 

In some models for the Alpine Fault event, then the impact on Chch buildings shouldn't be much worse than the effect of yesterday's quake on Wgtn.  The fault(s) which stuffed the place in 2010/11 have >10,000 year recurrence - so they're done and dusted.  There could be other unknown faults similar to the Greendale/Port Hills capable of unleashing M6 or so, but at least they aren't right underneath us.

 

I recall Mark Quigley saying that the AF could be 8 to 8.5. In ChCh it drops 1 magnitude. And being that far away, it would be rolling. I guess now, we can cope with that. But it runs up past Welly, out to the Hikurangi Trench (i thinks its that name) which is tsunami territory. 

Didn't they think there may be a fault underneath us? When they were getting a number off New Brighton? 

I was listening to John Campbells show (I really dislike that guy) and one of his people was interviewing some people in Kaikoura. This one woman, sleeping in her car, cooking for other people, giving what she had to help others, I was honestly humbled by people that don't have a lot, but would share it with someone in need. Made me proud to be a Kiwi.

The quakes in Christchurch were devastating, and being from Christchurch but now living in Auckland, going back to visit was ... devastating. From that though, something amazing happened. For as long as I could recall, the country was broken into pockets, each sniping at the other, real disdain for different regions. Most if not all, of that went away almost instantly, and to our credit as a country, 

we have kept our unity to a large degree. We might disagree about politics, we may disagree about religion, we may even bicker about technology, but we are Kiwi's first. 

jamesrt:

 

DarthKermit: All that land around there is reclaimed from the harbour isn't it?

 

Molesworth St?  No, doubt it is reclaimed.  The plaques about the historic foreshore are on Lambton Quay (which is why it's curved) - so all the reclaimed land is from there towards the current harbour.  This is most of Featherston Street, for example (which is why that area is so badly damaged).

 

Molesworth St runs from about that end of Lambton Quay uphill towards the Tinakori Hill, so is 90 degree right angle (more or less) running away from the reclaimed land.

 

Not sure that it is, as it is in an area that goes uphill. I believe the reclaimed area starts where the old wooden Government building is. Apparently the problem building was empty and was having or about to have work done to it.

tdgeek:

 

 

 

John Key said the books are in great shape so there is no issue there. That was referring to SI though. Buildings arent his problem though. But re reinsurers, they may back out or increase rates significantly, and I guess if and when that happens, when now probably, its too bad, the building owners, and thus the leasees will have to bear that.

 

And the Alpine Fault is the big unknown. Its due. Might be in 10 minutes, 10 years or 100 years. But from its pattern, Id have to think less than 100 years. These last few years of activity can't be helping.

 

Except that we owe billions, and our private household debt is huge. Earthquake experts usually say that these type of events have not influence on other areas. However these recent earthquakes caused additional earthquakes to occur in a whole lot of other areas.

No doubt when the 'Christchurch Rebuild" is complete, we can move right along to the 'Kaikoura Rebuild'...!

SWMBO is working for BNZ in the Wellington Harbour Quays office and - transport issues aside - has been unable to go to work thus far this week and expects that to remain the case all week at least.

Apparently the last decent quake put that building out for weeks too, which given the fact that it is pretty new, is amazing.

It really looks as though we need to raise our building design and inspection regime by an order of magnitude or two.

Was that the building that was also out of action after the 2013 ones? There is also the Stats building on the waterfront on the news that isn't looking good.

Molesworth St. buildings fifth floor beam has fractured. Looks to me like they didn't take much of the upper part construction seriously keeping in view its a major thoroughfare for everyday commuters. It's a clear structural failure so many other buildings resurrected by the same contractor should be inspected for any damage.

Geektastic:

SWMBO is working for BNZ in the Wellington Harbour Quays office and - transport issues aside - has been unable to go to work thus far this week and expects that to remain the case all week at least.

Apparently the last decent quake put that building out for weeks too, which given the fact that it is pretty new, is amazing.

It really looks as though we need to raise our building design and inspection regime by an order of magnitude or two.

mattwnz:

 

tdgeek:

 

 

 

John Key said the books are in great shape so there is no issue there. That was referring to SI though. Buildings arent his problem though. But re reinsurers, they may back out or increase rates significantly, and I guess if and when that happens, when now probably, its too bad, the building owners, and thus the leasees will have to bear that.

 

And the Alpine Fault is the big unknown. Its due. Might be in 10 minutes, 10 years or 100 years. But from its pattern, Id have to think less than 100 years. These last few years of activity can't be helping.

 

 

 

 

Except that we owe billions, and our private household debt is huge. Earthquake experts usually say that these type of events have not influence on other areas. However these recent earthquakes caused additional earthquakes to occur in a whole lot of other areas.

 

Many countries have debts. He said we are in great shape, that wont be a problem, his words. Insurers cover the buildings, thats their issue, and our issue when premiums rise, thats the way it is. Household debt, do you mean personal debt? Im in ChCh, I didn't run up any debt over the EQ's. My rates doubled though. Until ChCh, EQ was a distant possibility, no individuals really would give an event like these a second thought. But its reality now, for everyone. It adds cost, but we can deal with it. Either by Givt funding what they need to, and us paying more to local Govt and insurers.