STRUCTURAL & EARTHQUAKE STRENGTHENING
Commercial & Industrial Infrastructure
Meccanico provides cost-effective structural remediation and seismic strengthening for buildings and structures throughout New Zealand, including Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
Commercial Buildings
E.g. Multi-level, multi-unit buildings; offices, hotels, apartment buildings
Warehouses, Bridges & Stadiums
Large Historic & Heritage Buildings
Churches & Halls
Structural Strengthening
Meccanico offers a complete, end-to-end service; from engineering assessments and surveying, retro-fitting and construction, to full Project Management if required.
Cross Bracing Strengthening
- Shoring & Bracing
Remove & replace existing structural members - Retro-fit Structure
Shear walls, steel horizontal truss system, braced steel framing
Secure floor-to-wall connections
Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) wrap
Cross Bracing - Exterior Reinforcement
E.g. New exterior columns, buttressing, shear reinforcement
Gunite/shotcrete application
Foundation Strengthening
Seismic Strengthening (Earthquake Strengthening)
Strengthening work to vastly improve seismic performance, protect life and property, and help keep the building or structure operational. E.g. Buildings affected by the Building (earthquake-prone buildings) Amendment Act 2016. This includes buildings classified as earthquake-prone (on the EPB register), and at-risk buildings/structures, such as unreinforced masonry buildings (URM). Meccanico͛s earthquake strengthening work can incorporate installing Seismic Base Isolators to dramatically improve structural performance during earthquakes.
Learn more: Seismic Base Isolation & see Case Study below.
About Meccanico
Meccanico is unique in New Zealand: we have in-house Registered Engineers, Platinum Certified builders, designers, and New Zealand’s largest, most-experienced lifting and levelling team. Meccanico’s Directors, Rod and Stuart Moore, have worked on hundreds of earthquake-damaged properties in New Zealand and have helped save many properties from demolition, including heritage and historic buildings. See About Us & Heavy Lifting & Levelling
Meccanico’s South Island head office is in Christchurch, our North Island head office is in Auckland.
What is an ‘earthquake-prone’ building?
‘The new legislation defines an earthquake-prone building as one that would have its ultimate capacity exceeded in a moderate earthquake, and if the building were to collapse, the collapse would be likely to cause injury or death or damage to other property. The definition applies to parts of buildings as well as whole buildings.
The new legislation defines the term ‘moderate earthquake’ in regulations as one that would generate shaking at the site of the building that is of the same duration as, but that is one-third as strong as, the earthquake shaking that would be used to design a new building at that site if it were designed on the date of the commencement of the new legislation. The term ‘ultimate capacity’ is also to be defined in regulations.
In practice, an earthquake-prone building is often referred to as one that meets less than 34 per cent of the new building standard (NBS).
The definition of an earthquake-prone building takes into account a range of factors, including different levels of seismic risk around New Zealand. This means a building at 33% in Wellington, where there is relatively high seismic risk, is stronger (in absolute terms) than a building at 33% in Auckland where the seismic risk is lower.’
Source: NZ Ministry of Business & Enterprise: Managing Earthquake Prone Buildings (‘Some questions and answers on the new legislation’ – PDF)
Further information re: Building (earthquake-prone buildings) Amendment Act 2016
Parliamentary Counsel Office: NZ Legislation
EARTHQUAKE STRENGTHENING CASE STUDY
Sudima Hotel - Christchurch Airport
Strengthening & Full Refurbishment - 2016
The scope of the project required full strip out, re-strengthening and refurbishment to be completed in just four months. The hotel’s Lincoln wing and Roosevelt wing were damaged from the main February 2011 earthquake. New foundations, block walls and structural steel were installed to bring the wings back up to 67% of NBS Code so they could be reoccupied. The project was very challenging due to the compressed timeframe, but our team delivered in every aspect.