News reports are saying that there are questions arising over the stability of the CTV building that collapsed with horrendous loss of life in last week’s Christchurch earthquake. Among the dead and missing are a number of international students in the King’s Education College which was also in the building.

The Mainichi Daily News reported

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — A building that collapsed in a powerful earthquake here on Feb. 22, leaving many Japanese students missing under rubble, was deemed fit for use after a 2010 quake, local authorities said.

In a survey conducted after Christchurch was shaken by a magnitude 7 earthquake in September last year, authorities decided that there was no problem with continued use of the Canterbury Television (CTV) building. But following the building’s collapse during last week’s magnitude 6.3 quake, people have been questioning that decision.

The media outlet went on to say

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said that tests were conducted according to international standards and that the responsibility to ensure safety lay in the hands of the building’s owner.

The building had been inspected by the council and ‘green stickered’ after the September 4 quake

But with buildings that had green stickers indicating they were fit for use, owners were supposed to conduct safety checks and carry out any necessary repairs themselves, and there was no obligation to report any reinforcement work.

Local media said that during the September 2010 quake, cracks appeared in the walls of the CTV building, and building users had worried about its safety.

To complicate matters further there is also a report in the NZ Herald saying that

“Questions have been raised whether the CTV building was weakened by demolition work the day before the earthquake.

Contractors clearing a site next door drilled holes in the back wall of CTV, along the ground floor and second storey of the building.

The holes were for wooden battens attached to the outside wall as support for the neighbouring demolition, said CTV chairman Nick Smith.

“I said to one of the construction guys, ‘this doesn’t look too smart, the wall looks pretty flimsy to me’.

“And he said, ‘nah, nah we know what we’re doing’.

“I said fair enough because I’m not a construction guy.”

Mr Smith, also a director of Allied Press which owns the Otago Daily Times, said questions needed to be asked…” Read the full report here

Government Inquiry into Collapse

The Prime Minister of New Zealand announced yesterday that there is to be a government inquiry into the building’s collapse, which was said to have been inspected by an engineer and was undergoing repairs to superficial damage caused in the Sept quake.

For more on this read the Herald’s report CTV building owners welcome inquiry, death toll now at 155.

Steel reinforcement fell short of international requirements

Controversially, the international site Asahi.com has reported

The Canterbury Television building was damaged in a 2010 earthquake, but suggested reinforcements were not conducted before it was flattened last week by another temblor, trapping an estimated 100 people, local people said.

Architectural engineers had warned that some quake-proofing would be necessary for the six-story CTV building after the temblor in September 2010, but the owner of the building apparently decided that it was safe enough.

In addition, Christchurch municipal authorities said they found no problem with the continued use of the building following an inspection after the September quake.

The CTV building, erected in 1975, collapsed in the magnitude-6.3 earthquake on Feb. 22…

According to Rob Cope-Williams, 61, a CTV producer and newscaster, large cracks, some several meters long, formed on the interior walls of the building following the magnitude-7.0 quake in September.

A three-story building behind the CTV building was severely damaged, and demolition work began in December.

Cope-Williams said shockwaves from the wrecking ball caused many cracks to widen in the CTV building, raising concerns among CTV employees that the building would not survive another quake.

The demolition work was completed Feb. 21, the day before the latest temblor…

Hideki Miyamoto, head of a U.S.-based architectural design office specializing in quake-resistance structures, has dispatched a team of inspectors to survey the latest damage in Christchurch.

He said the inspectors reported that the amount of steel reinforcement in concrete samples collected at the CTV building site fell short of the requirements in the current quake-resistance standards.

The team also noted a lack of horizontal steel braces to bind the steel bars and keep them in place, Miyamoto said…” read the full report here

No word yet as to whether Japan will be holding its own inquiry into the deaths of its nationals, but you can be sure that if they do they are likely to do a very thorough job.