14 February 2013

Biddick Courts City Housing Units to close

Christchurch City Council is today (Wednesday 14 February) closing part of the the Biddick Courts City Housing complex in Dallington with all affected residents to be offered an alternative place to live.

The closure of 11 units in the 16-unit housing complex comes after the Council received the results of a Detailed Engineering Evaluation (DEE) assessment which shows some of the buildings have a seismic capacity of less than 34 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS). Two double-storey blocks have been assessed as being 19 per cent of the NBS and engineers say there is a potential for ‘brittle failure’, which means they may not stand up to future earthquakes. Land damage at the site has contributed to the buildings’ low seismic capacity.

Under the requirements of the Residential Tenancies Act (Section 59), the Council must give the 11 affected tenants seven days’ notice because they are considered to be at risk in the event of future earthquakes or aftershocks.

Council staff will advise residents of the closure today and will work with tenants to re-house them in other Council-owned units across the city in the coming days. All affected residents who wish to move to another Council-owned unit will be able to do so.

General Manager Community Services Michael Aitken says this will naturally be an upsetting time for residents. Although the Council is required to give residents seven days’ notice, Council staff will be working closely with tenants to find alternative accommodation as soon as possible.

“The Council had already carried out assessments of this complex following the earthquakes and the units were deemed fit to occupy at that time. However, as a DEE assessment is a much closer look at the way a building might perform in future earthquakes, it has highlighted a major structural issue in the two-storey blocks that are a risk to residents’ health and safety. With this new information in mind, we must act quickly to move residents to new homes.”

Five units in another single-storey block in the complex have been assessed as having a seismic capacity of 100 per cent of the NBS and are therefore fit to occupy. The six residents living there will also be advised today that they can stay in the complex. Although all three blocks in the Biddick Courts Complex were built at the same time, the design and type of construction has resulted in the two-storey blocks having a lower seismic capacity than the one-storey block.

The Biddick Courts complex underwent Level Two Rapid Assessments – visual engineering assessments of the inside and outside of a building – after the major earthquakes.

Now that the units are closed, the Council will carry out full damage assessments of the buildings, which will include the development of repair and strengthening options.

For more information about the Council’s Detailed Engineering Evaluations, which are being carried out as part of its Facilities Rebuild Plan project, visit www.ccc.govt.nz/facilitiesrebuild

ENDS

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