QV reports on Chch generated by JV with cultural comms group

QV reports on Christchurch generated by joint venture with cultural communications group

March 3 (BusinessDesk) - QV, the government property valuer, says hazard reports on Christchurch properties on its website were produced by a joint venture with Niu Pacific Ltd., a firm that specialises in 'culturally inclusive' communications.

QV research director Jonno Ingerson put out a statement after the NZ Herald said the reports showed the Canterbury Television and Pyne Gould Corp. were built on soft soil, prone to shaking in an earthquake.

"According to the hazard information on the QV website many properties in Christchurch have a high or very high risk of liquefaction in a large earthquake," Ingerson's statement said. "Which of these properties actually sustain liquefaction damage will depend on a number of factors including the location and size of the earthquake, the depth of the ground water in the area at the time, and the specific construction of the building"

Ingerson said the hazard reports weren't a substitute for site-specific inspections and engineering reports.

Christchurch was built on swampy land that was gradually drained by the England-dominated migrants who founded the city on a grid of avenues and encouraged a host of neoclassical and gothic buildings that tumbled in the recent quake.

Ingerson said QV has "a range of reports for individual properties in New Zealand" including assessments of their inherent geological dangers. That included "an assessment of the susceptibility to ground shaking, fault rupture and liquefaction."

The hazard reports contain "no geotechnical or subsurface data."

The reports are generated by Property Insight, a JV with the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, QV and Niu Pacific.

The CTV and Pyne Gould buildings were the deadliest sites during the quake that devastated Christchurch last week.

(BusinessDesk)

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