It took the government eight years to verify the National War memorial after warnings it might be killed in the earthquake | 1 news

Engineers have warned a government ministry about the failure of the bell frame in the Carillon National War memorial, and bells can fall and kill people in an earthquake.

The National War Memorial of Carillon.
Source: rnz.co.nz

By Phil Pennington from rnz.co.nz

The Ministry of Culture and Heritage was urged to verify the bell frame in 2011, but documents show that it took another eight years until it did so.

Meanwhile, Carillon reopened to the public, and heavy bells returned to the tire.

Documents issued by the Office of Internal Audit show that structural engineers Dunning Thornton told the ministry in 2011 that 70 tons of bells are dangerous, including destabilizing the tower in the earthquake.

Donning Thornton said: “The large mass of bells means that they pose a threat to life within the structure if it is lost from its support framework, or if the support framework fails.”

“We recommend conducting a bell support / tuning assessment to determine this risk.”

In 2015 and again in 2017, company reports reminded the ministry that the full examination had not been completed.

This was after the 45-meter tower was already closed to reinforce the costly earthquakes that started in 2012.

The documents showed that the ministry only obtained Dunning Thornton to conduct a full seismic assessment of the bell frame in August 2019.

The assessment, completed in April 2020, revealed that seismic work had failed to repair the bell frame.

She classed the frame so badly that officials were forced to close the entire memorial.

It happened in February of this year, and the ministry did not wait for the final evaluation report to get it closed.

“The safety of our employees and the public is of the utmost importance,” she said in February.

The ministry told RNZ last week that the evaluation had rated the bell frame at only 15 percent of the New Building Standard (NBS) (15 percent of what a new building in the same place could withstand the earthquake).

Anything less than 20 percent of NBS is 25 times more likely to fail under seismic load than if it meets the new construction standards.

RNZ understands that there are questions about whether the evaluation and the closing of the memorial are justified.

Peer reviewing for Dunning Thornton has not yet been reviewed.

Choirs and fans have been allowed to use the tower since it reopened after reinforcement in mid-2018.

The ministry told RNZ this week that it was “comfortable” to reopen Carillon because it knew that the tower main structure had a good earthquake rate of 40-50 percent on NBS (less than 67 percent categorized as “earthquake risk”).

Notice of seismological building inside Carillon.
Source: rnz.co.nz

Closing in February is the latest chain to shut down the country’s most famous bell tower and a center to commemorate the war to the public for years.

The Memory Hall, behind the tower and access to it only, was closed from 2012-2015, and Carillon Tower from 2012-18, for promotions and earthquake promotion.

Carillon and “member” bells are completely separated from 2016-18 – 15,000 parts are dismantled and then assembled again by eyewitness Timothy Hurd.

This work was done despite the Ministry’s knowledge that it did not properly evaluate the bell frame.

Hurd said in 2018 that when workers removed the bells, they found that the steel frame was “much, much worse, than we thought.”

“So we actually ended up replacing about 20 percent of the steel frame and all of the supporting heads, which were somewhat reduced to less than their original radius.”

“The steel bell structure has been eroded,” the ministry said in February in a statement.

But it has not all been replaced.

The ministry told RNZ this week that “some of the elements have removed the rust and have been drawn up as a temporary measure, pending the investigation of more steel alternatives.”

“Some corner stents were treated this way.”

RNZ understands that the reinforcement angle is the weakest point.

The ministry said a separate construction engineering company had done work to treat corrosion.

Outside this work, the ministry said that it had not received any advice regarding any problems in the corner preparing before the 2020 assessment.

Large amounts of moored concrete were poured during the reinforcement and reinforcement of steel for the tower itself – its heaviest bell over 12 tons – while by 2015 the hall was upgraded to 100 percent NBS.

The ministry has yet to publish the detailed seismic assessment of Carillon, despite its request since February.

She is currently studying ways to reopen the memorial while preserving the safety of people, while assessing how to fully repair it.

“Voice as a bell” – Majlis

Wellington’s city council had in its files a zodiac rating of just 11 percent of NBS – judged by somewhat tighter seismic assessment rules in 2011 – because of the unreinforced construction.

But in 2018 he celebrated the reopening of the tower anyway.

“Restored Carillon voted as a bell,” said the address on the council website.

That was “an unfortunate choice of words, because our flexible staff always knew that the building was vulnerable to earthquakes,” the board told RNZ yesterday.

It took the Board until mid-2019 to score an NBS rating of 11 percent on the earthquake-prone building notice in Carillon as required by law.

The Ministry “acceptable recommendation”

The ministry denied that it had waited years for the bell frame to be examined.

She told RNZ in a statement that she “accepted the engineer’s recommendation” to further evaluate the bell tires and other secondary structures.

She did not mention that this recommendation was first made in 2011, and that she only worked on it in 2019.

Dunning Thornton in 2011 made this recommendation; But for the detailed seismic evaluation of the entire tower, the company instead recommended putting resources in temporary reinforcement in order to raise the earthquake-prone case of Carillon.

She said in 2011, “It is not difficult to improve the turret’s seismic performance to 67 percent,” which is a major threshold in NBS.

The ministry told RNZ this week that it did not expect the bell tires to have “a major impact on the overall seismic classification”.

“Until the moment the ministry received the draft [detailed seismic assessment] In February this year, I understood that the Carillon Tower has a total seismic strength of between 40-50 percent NBS.

OIA documents do not support this statement.

In an email to the city council in August 2019, Brody Stubbs, the ministry’s project director, said that the classification of the primary tower was known, “but there are some unknowns to the secondary structure such as the bell frame.”

Mr. Stubbs attached a 2015 letter from Dunning Thornton to the ministry, which says: “The building is still vulnerable to an earthquake.

“This status will only be removed when secondary elements are processed.”

Those elements were the bell frame. Earthquake Classification “Unknown – Out of our current scope. Problem related to EQP (earthquake prone) status”.

The ministry said it acted “at all times based on the information it had”.

Carillon was unable to save on the cost to boost the 2014-18 earthquakes.

“Ministry employees are currently working remotely, and until we can access the printed files, an exact number cannot be given.”

The hall cost $ 1.8 million to upgrade.

The tower must be strengthened again by May 30, 2022.

2011 – Engineering firm Dunning Thornton notifies the ministry of identifying the risk of bells with a full review
2011 – The engineer rated Carillon at 11 percent NBS due to the unreinforced construction
2012-2015 – Reinforcing the earthquakes Carillon and Memories Hall
2015 – An engineer says the Ministry’s bell frame earthquake classification is “unknown”
2016 – Kaikoura earthquake, resulting in more severe seismic ratings
2016-2018 – Carillon bells, bells and bell frame are partially dismantled
2017 – Engineer suggests to the ministry to conduct a detailed seismic evaluation of the bell frame
2018 – Carillon reopened
August 2019 – The Ministry asked Dunning Thornton to rate the bell frame. The council records 11 percent NBS on the Carillon earthquake prone notice
February 2020 – The Ministry obtained a bell frame evaluation project, and closed the National War Memorial. April – Evaluation completed.
2020 June – The Ministry confirms that the RNZ bell frame has received a 15 percent NBS2022 – deadline for Carillon reinforcement

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