After questions were raised about six buildings in Masterton by one of our members, IPENZ alerted the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). This resulted in initial seismic assessments of these six buildings, followed by more detailed assessments, which raised questions about the engineering of the buildings.. There have also been assessments of a number of other buildings.

IPENZ is commencing an own-motion inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the engineering design and construction of these six buildings in Masterton. IPENZ cares deeply about public trust and confidence in our engineers and we need to get to the bottom of what has happened here. The best way to do this is to investigate what has happened.

Own-motion inquiries are best reserved for matters with broader systemic implications. They are different from own-motion complaints. They allow us to look into the circumstances before determining whether any action needs to be taken in relation to individual engineers.

Our responsibility is to investigate matters as they relate to individual engineers. But engineers are part of a system. Everything happens within a context and it is important that we understand context at an individual, systemic and sector-wide level. This will form part of the Inquiry.

The Inquiry will look at what happened, why and what we can learn. This could include the adequacy of oversight, supervision, and quality assurance processes; and broader issues involved in the engineering review of those designs and construction monitoring.

The first step of the process is to gather facts and identify issues to determine whether any individual engineers need to be investigated further. It’s also to consider whether there are any systemic or contextual factors that may require a response from IPENZ.

The Inquiry will take a neutral, deliberate approach and is likely to take some months.

| An IPENZ release | Dec 01,206 |

Prime Minister John Key and Transport Minister Simon Bridges have turned the sod on the first section of the long awaited Pūhoi to Wellsford Road.

The Puhoi to Warkworth road will be a new 18.5km motorway between Auckland and Northland. It is the first section of the Pūhoi to Wellsford Road to get underway, one of the Government’s Roads of National Significance.

“Extending the Northern Motorway between Pūhoi and Warkworth will enhance inter-regional and national economic growth and improve the reliability of the transport network between Auckland and Northland,” Mr Bridges says.

“It will also support population growth, connecting the expanding Warkworth area which is expected to grow to 20,000 residents in the next few decades.”

The $709.5 million project is being delivered through a Public Private Partnership, the second for a state highway in New Zealand.

Progress is also being made towards starting the second stage between Warkworth and Wellsford.

“The NZ Transport Agency has been undertaking investigations and will be sharing an indicative route with the public early next year,” Mr Bridges says.

“Both of these projects will reduce the overall travel time between Auckland and Northland, bypassing town centres and avoiding State Highway 1’s current steep and winding route.

“It will also create a better freight connection for Northland to the Upper North Island freight “Golden Triangle” of Auckland, Waikato and Tauranga.”

The road is planned to be open to traffic in late 2021.

More information is available at http://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/ara-tuhono-puhoi-to-warkworth.

Designed specifically for use in urban areas where space is limited and safety is a concern, AL_A’s stackable Pitch/Pitch sports fields turn athletic endeavors into a community event. The clear sided structures provide views for passersby, and for spectators, covered walkways around the pitches provide up-close enjoyment of the action. The pitches can be configured for different sports, including football, basketball and hockey, and for different sized teams starting with three-a-side.

Integrated lighting and stairwells, as well as the lightweight carbon fiber material, mean the pitches can be constructed and deconstructed quickly and easily. The design team envisions Pitch/Pitch structures to be used for time-limited events or for much longer, depending on the space available. They can also be used for other activities as well.

Sport connects people and creates community and new materials and designs are helping to make it more accessible. A shipping container that contains everything needed to build a community center and sports field is now available. And for friends wanting to watch a game together, a new virtual reality platform creates a stadium everyone can gather in. What other community services could be delivered in similar modular style?

A SpringWise sourced innovation

Companies are increasingly looking for circular-economy approaches to design — and use — durable products that can be reused or recycled at end of life.

Noble Environmental Technologies says its technology is helping customers do just that: recycle their waste streams into new building materials for reuse. And the company says it can partner with virtually any business to help it close the loop while reduce its manufacturing costs and waste produced, reports Environmental Leader.

Starbucks, for example, could recycle coffee grounds and commercial waste and convert it into materials used to build stores, furniture and packaging, the company says. And Walmart could recycle all of its retail store paper and cardboard waste and convert it into home décor, furniture products, retail shelving and displays, officials say.

Noble Environmental says its building material product, called Ecor, makes these scenarios possible and profitable. It was a finalist at the annual World Economic Forum conference at Davos, recognized for enabling the circular economy and a Dell Circular Economy People’s Choice Award nominee. The company says Ecor is the future of green building and sustainable design.

Ecor, developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is made from 100 percent recycled material. It’s made from fiber-based waste — office paper, cardboard, recycled denim and other fabrics, hemp, jute, sugar cane bagasse, corn husks, wood dust and trimmings, among others — and can be engineered into a variety of shapes for different applications. The company describes it as a sustainable alternative to wood, composites, aluminum and plastic. The product itself is also 100 percent recyclable.

“We call it a fiber alloy,” Noble Environmental’s Jay Potter said in an interview. “The fiber alloy is like your fingerprint. Every single company we encounter has a waste stream, and that waste stream is unique to them. And every company has a need for building materials, for their own use or making into products such as furniture or something else. Whether its in their building or products, we can design a unique fiber alloy around their needs.”

Panels are priced between $3 and $24 per square foot.

Google, Whole Foods and Toms Shoes are among the companies using Ecor — Whole Food has used Ecor for signage, Google used Ecor for wavy interior panels and Toms’ for shoe hangers. The company says it will soon announce a new customer, “a leading global brewer,” that will convert its spent brewers grains, paper and cardboard waste into a range of Ecor materials, which will then be used by the brewer and its vendors to produce their retail graphics, point-of-purchase displays, commercial packaging and perhaps even the six-beer bottle boxes.

“The brewery has to replace 15,000 uniforms a year, and 85 percent of those are 100 percent cotton — just wonderful fiber,” Potter said. “Unlike a pair of jeans, which someone might wear again, nobody wants a soiled uniform. It has very little opportunity for reuse. Same thing with the brewery’s off-labels. They might have little pieces of glass in it, or some glues that recyclers can’t deal with. We take any fiber that we can cobble together to make an alloy.”

The company says in addition to helping businesses reduce or eliminate their waste, using Ecor also provides a competitive advantage. The product is lighter, which means it costs less to transport. It’s also 30 percent denser than medium density fiberboard, which means it is more durable and will last longer.

Ecor contains no toxic adhesives, additives, formaldehyde, or off-gassing and has virtually zero airborne volatile organic compounds.

Potter says it also costs less than it’s conventional counterparts. “There’s a big MDF (medium density fiberboard) project in Northern California that’s going to cost $300 million — we could build that same factory for probably $75 million.”

Lux Research analyst Jerrold Wang told Environmental Leader that Ecor is a good example of a circular economy approach.

“The use of waste material not only achieves sustainability but also enables low raw material cost or even negative cost,” he said.

But Lux Research doesn’t consider it an alternative to wood, composites, aluminum and plastic

A Proud Green Building press release

A new development for the New Zealand building and construction industry, Fletcher Aluminium and NALCO have combined to form a joint venture that leverages their scale, market coverage, product innovation and reliability - the new company will now be known as Altus.

Their position will also make them a more attractive supplier in many of the industrial sectors they service. So boat builders, engineers or any business that requires aluminum solutions can look to Altus to have the expertise and capacity to meet all requirements.

Bigger, better, more innovative and more consistent - the word Altus has deep rooted origins and stands for depth and height. Altus with its team of experienced and visionary leaders and highly-skilled staff aim to be at the height of technical excellence and customer service.

'Together we aim to provide our customers with greater levels of service, consistent lead times, improved logistics, and ultimately a wider range of products,' says Altus managing director Ron Holden. 'Combining manufacturing facilities and capabilities will offer accelerated growth in productivity, quality improvement and innovation. Altus aims to lead positive change and make a real difference to our customers' world.'

In the past financial year, both Fletcher Aluminium and NALCO have experienced record manufacturing and sales demand, in part to New Zealand's booming building industry and to their approach on how to best capitalise new opportunities.

'Altus now has the size and scale capable of achieving market-leading outcomes in innovation design, manufacturing, marketing and sales and to be the number one supplier and employer of choice,' says Ron Holden. 'It's about being strong, reliable, customer driven and providing the very best service nationwide.'

'In the immediate future our customers won't notice the change; it will be business as usual while the two businesses continue to integrate with a focus on looking after customers first and foremost. As from today, 28 November, NALCO and Fletcher Aluminium will cease to exist. This change is just the first of many exciting changes for New Zealand's aluminium industry. Watch this space!'

A Fletchers release

Matthew Weake is a valuable member of CADPRO System's Autodesk training and support team.  In regular conatct with operators he is in the unique position of being able to identify those procedures that require a little more attention - creating drawings in Autodesk Fabrication ESTmep and CAMduct is one of them. 

Here is an article that has been prepared by Matthew and can be accessed in full on the CADPRO Systems website

Creating drawings in Autodesk Fabrication ESTmep and CAMduct is not the most intuitive or CAD-like experience so I thought I would share a few tips here to get you started.

Setup Report Printer

When designing your reports, you may find you use up lots of paper only to find the report is not quite right.

A useful tip here is to add a pdf printer as your report printer until you have the Report looking like you want. This will save paper and many trips to the printer.

Most printers can be made to print black and white as default and the options can be found in the printer setup dialog box. Try the awesome Bluebeam Revu CAD – it does a lot more than just creating great pdf’s. Bluebeam Revu

Add Layouts

To create drawings in Autodesk Fabrication ESTmep of a selection of items you should add a layout with those items in it.

Most of us have seen the Global Tab at the bottom of the page but paid no notice to it. It is, in fact, the second tip here. You should add your own Layout Tab and give it a short meaningful name. My example uses really good names – test and test2!

Continue on to full article

| Wellington, Nov 23, 2016 |  - Advice to the building industry on restraining ceilings, ducting and other non-structural elements will improve the safety and resilience of commercial buildings during earthquakes, Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith says.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) today released two practice advisories to the building sector on non-structural elements and secondary structural elements in commercial buildings.

“Structural failures in buildings pose the greatest risk to people’s lives but elements such as ceiling panels and ducting can injure people and cause death. These failures are a major component of the post-earthquake repair cost and can significantly disrupt businesses and their staff while repairs take place.

“We are seeing too many examples of ceiling panels, ducting and features such as hanging sculptures failing in the Christchurch, Seddon and now Kaikoura earthquakes. Often these features are added after the building has had its Code Compliance Certificate issued, without sufficient thought to the risks they pose in a seismic event. Particular care needs to be taken with those additions which are sufficiently large to cause an injury or death.

“The guidance is a clear reminder to architects, engineers, contractors, building owners and councils of their responsibilities under the Building Act, that they must make sure the risk of collapse of non-structural elements is low. The various players need to take a well-planned approach to make sure the design is co-ordinated and building elements are appropriately restrained.”

The guidance on secondary structural elements, such as precast panels and stairs, emphasises design requirements to ensure those elements perform in an earthquake. MBIE regularly issues and updates guidance on best practice in building design and construction.

“There is a heightened risk of aftershocks in central New Zealand and it would be timely for people to make sure items such as filing cabinets are adequately restrained. Too many people were injured in commercial buildings by falling cabinets, storage racks and computer screens during the Christchurch earthquakes. Just as people should be making sure large items of furniture or televisions at home are secured, employers should take care to restrain office furniture,” Dr Smith says.

The practice advisories can be seen at: https://www.building.govt.nz/building-code-compliance/b-stability/b1-structure/practice-advisory-19 and https://www.building.govt.nz/building-code-compliance/b-stability/b1-structure/practice-advisory-20

| IPENZ - 18 Nov 16 |  Engineers are finding unusual effects from the Kaikoura earthquake in that low rise buildings suffered minimal damage while medium rise buildings suffered significant damage.

New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) President Peter Smith says there was an extraordinarily large release of energy much closer to Wellington than initially realised.

The shaking lasted 90 seconds, compared to 20 seconds for the February 2011 Christchurch event.

Mr Smith says how buildings respond in an earthquake depends on their height, stiffness and the nature of the ground they are on.

“At this stage in Wellington, it looks like buildings between eight and 15 storeys have been worst hit. This quake has generated intense accelerations in buildings in this height range, especially those on softer soils.

“In contrast, short, stiff structures have experienced relatively low accelerations in this earthquake. This is the main reason why Wellington’s older buildings, which tend to be shorter, generally didn’t suffer any damage, even though some are categorised as earthquake prone. This effect is similar to that which occurred in the June 2013 Seddon earthquake. It’s important to realise that these buildings may still perform poorly in an event centred closer to Wellington.

Structural Engineering Society (SESOC) President Paul Campbell says engineers are continuing to assess buildings.

“Buildings might be undamaged or damaged in a way that doesn’t reduce their capacity to deal with future shaking. This means they may be just as safe as they were before the earthquake.

“Broken partition walls, ceiling and disrupted contents can look bad and be inconvenient but do not represent a significant threat to your safety. Conversely, some buildings may have damage that is hidden from view but there will generally be clues to this that an experienced and knowledgeable engineer will detect.

“If an engineer assesses a building as suffering damage that is likely to reduce its capacity to deal with future shaking, this means more detailed assessment is needed. Carrying out a detailed assessment can take weeks, not hours”.

Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Chief Executive Susan Freeman-Greene says many of the lessons learned from the Canterbury earthquakes are now incorporated into the Building Code though have been included in few buildings to date.

“These include new guidelines for rapid assessment of buildings and training of engineers in how to do these assessments.

“Everyone is feeling uncertain about the weeks and maybe months ahead, given the potential aftershock sequence. Building owners seeking peace of mind may want to get an engineer familiar with the building’s construction type to give it a full assessment.

“If anyone has concerns about damage that their building has suffered and the affect this may have on future performance they are urged to seek engineering advice.”

MSCNewsWire articles published prior to 14 Nov earthquake#4 | 2 Nov 16 |   Ministry of Works Dissolution started Leaky Buildings & Earthquake Vulnerability #3 | 26 Oct 16 | Ministry of Works Wellington Motorway Swathe Sowed Anti Big Engineering Project Whirlwind#2 | 24 Oct 16 | Ministry of Works had clear cut lines of Civil Engineering Responsibility#1 | 21 Oct 16 | Department was Repository of Exceptional Engineering Technical Ability & Management

More reading . .  .  .

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Wellington building likely to be 'deconstructed' after earthquake damage

Were the modern earthquake-prone Wellington buildings due to relaxed Standards post- MOW?

MSCNewsWire articles published prior to 14 Nov earthquake#4 | 2 Nov 16 |   Ministry of Works Dissolution started Leaky Buildings & Earthquake Vulnerability #3 | 26 Oct 16 | Ministry of Works Wellington Motorway Swathe Sowed Anti Big Engineering Project Whirlwind#2 | 24 Oct 16 | Ministry of Works had clear cut lines of Civil Engineering Responsibility#1 | 21 Oct 16 | Department was Repository of Exceptional Engineering Technical Ability & Management

Introduce quake star ratings for buildings - engineer

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CentrePort owes Wellington answers about the risk of its buildings

Wellington building likely to be 'deconstructed' after earthquake damage

Freight costs tipped to rise following quakes

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