Hook Bay Hospital suffers from variable earthquake risk

Hawke’s Bay DHB called its engineers back in to reevaluate the most important buildings, scoring them against the new building standard. Image NZME

by RNZ

New seismic models will raise risk levels in some places, including large parts of Hawk’s Bay, where the hospital is already grappling with shifting seismic goal points.

The largest revision of the National Earthquake Hazard Model in 20 years will be based on extensive research in the Hikurangi subduction zone – what GNS science calls a “sleeping giant”. This will start affecting the build code from the end of next year.

Georgia Macomb knows what’s at stake — her job at Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s East Coast Laboratory is to alert locals to the dangers of the area.

“It’s the largest source of seismic risk, and recent research also tells us that there is a one in four chance of a major earthquake occurring in the Hikurangi region in the next 50 years — about a one in four chance of a magnitude of eight,” she said.

That would be a massive earthquake and bad news for Hook Bay Hospital.

Its engineers, WSP, say the vibration could be up to 40 percent worse than the hospital’s old hazard model.

2012 model ‘can no longer be counted’.

“This affects the structural design and seismic classification of all buildings on the hospital site.”

But what do you do?

The choices are difficult. Hutt and Wellington hospitals face having to close major buildings and move services and wards.

Hawke’s Bay Hospital is also in the Department of Radiology.

Health Board Financial Services Executive Director Andrew Boyd wrestles with this.

“We are capital restricted. This is taxpayer money,” Boyd said.

“It is fair to say that the current construction program that we are implementing is to keep the site going until we get a fresh injection of capital to redevelop the campus – the new regional hospital.”

But the new hospital is 10 years away.

Meanwhile, DHB has called in its engineers to reevaluate the most important buildings, scoring them against the new building standard.

They did this using higher earthquake design standards that were introduced in 2017.

Four of the eight fell in the most dangerous, “earthquake-prone” area, below 34 percent of the NSO. View the Kestrel 2022 report comparison here.

However, the new low scores are unofficial and do not legally count; For example, they do not release earthquake-prone reinforcement deadlines.

They may decline less under the national seismic hazard model.

Officials have already begun to think about how to amend the building code.

“The only information I know is that it will be different across the country. There will be changes that will vary across the country,” said Dave Glings, MBIE Performance and Engineering Team Manager.

Gates said updated guidelines for new buildings, strengthening operations and seismic assessments will be issued as of late 2023.

Following them will not be mandatory, but “we recommend that engineers take into account all new information across the board.”

Hawke’s Bay Hospital has been persuaded to take further action by engineers’ warnings about the new hazard model.

“We did a reassessment – ​​should we look at the engineering that might change as a result of the change and seismic engineering standards?” Boyd said.

“What we found is that a certain project, the ray project, we paused, we paused this project, and now we’re looking at a different site.”

I broke down and was late putting in a new MRI scanner—and it was what Boyd was most keen to avoid.

Another project, to seismically strengthen operating rooms, was very far from being discontinued.

Thus, while the government touted it in 2019 as an audit of the future, it will offer theaters only an estimated 50 percent of NBS’s by 2017 standards (70 percent vs. 2012’s scale).

At least the DHB knows more about where it is – and what the weakest parts are to fix, like the ICU.

“This is the real reward for this work,” Boyd said. “We can use this methodology to highlight and identify key weaknesses.”

This is her way of bolstering the ICU, NICU, tubes, and corridors — and reducing the threat posed by buildings bombarding each other — all without breaking the bank.

Engineering advice suggests it’s a safe way to get through another 10 years, until Hawk Bay Hospital can fully rebuild from the government.

As long as the Hikurangi subduction zone does not rupture first.

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