Few commercial buildings comply with seismic restraints standardTRACY EARL The BNZ Centre on Harbour Quay suffered substantial damage during the Seddon quake in July 2013. The lack of office buildings which comply with earthquake restraints standards is a "shocking state of affairs", a Wellington engineer says. Non-structural, seismic restraints hold air conditioning, fire-sprinkler, telecommunication, electricity systems, lighting and ceiling support systems in place. "Project building information shows extraordinary levels of clashes with other services and show no allowance for the correct amount of space for compliant seismic restraints. "But if $4m was spent on seismic restraints [pre-quake], possibly none of this would have happened.

Source: Stuff July 28, 2017 04:18 UTC