Council investigation clears buildings
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An investigation into claims of unsupervised work on buildings in Christchurch has found there is no cause for concern.
“After completing an audit of documentation and procedures for all seven buildings, which were issued with code compliance certificates, the Council can confirm that these certificates were issued correctly,” said Consenting and Compliance General Manager Leonie Rae.
Two former employees of a Christchurch engineering company presented Christchurch City Council with affidavits expressing concerns about work done on seven structures in the city. They claimed they did welding work they were not qualified to do, were asked to take shortcuts and that some required inspections were not done.
“The Council takes these types of allegations seriously and is nearing the end of an intensive investigation,” Mrs Rae said. “This has been done by senior managers and engineers with up to six senior staff involved, including a chartered professional engineer.
As part of the investigation, both complainants were interviewed, as were the engineers who oversaw the work and the main contractors for the projects. Site visits were undertaken with the complainants, engineers and Council inspectors.
“Our investigation has found that there were instances where their work was temporary or the welding itself was of no structural significance. Where the welding work was structural, it was inspected by qualified engineers and in one case the welding was redone. The complainants would not have been aware of the rework, inspections and testing as the company they worked for was no longer working on this site.
“The inspection and certification processes identified and remedied the issues. This shows that the process worked appropriately,” Mrs Rae said.
“I’d like to emphasise that at no point has the design of any buildings been called into account, and in our experience a large number of buildings exceed the minimum performance requirements of the national building code, particularly in respect to structure.”