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Bay of Plenty quake donation $100k for liquefaction research and field investigations

Thursday 28 October 2010, 5:33PM

By Environment Canterbury

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BAY OF PLENTY

A $100,000 donation to Environment Canterbury for the September 4 earthquake will help ensure future building of infrastructure will be on land not prone to liquefaction, Environment Canterbury commissioners agreed today. The donation was made by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

The funding will help fund two projects – one assessing the implications of the earthquake, in particular liquefaction and lateral spreading, on Greater Christchurch’s Urban Development Strategy (UDS), and the suitability of sites it identified before the earthquake as suitable for future development.

The second project will support field investigations, including geotechnical soil testing, of areas affected and not affected by liquefaction and lateral spreading. The Universities of Canterbury, Lincoln and Auckland could each provide engineering/soil scientist students to do this work with senior supervision over the next four months.

Both projects will also benefit infrastructure planning in other parts of the country, like the Bay of Plenty.

Helen Grant, Environment Canterbury geological hazards analyst, said the assessment of land suitable for future development after the September 4 quake was essential to inform the UDS’s Regional Policy Statement Proposed Change 1 process currently being heard in the Environment Court.*

The student field work was a cost-effective way of gathering geo-technical data, she said. “This can then be used to revise our Christchurch liquefaction maps, with direct benefits to the Canterbury community in future planning and risk management around liquefaction-prone land.” This would also benefit the UDS process.

Both pieces of work were identified as priorities in a report from the Canterbury Recovery Office to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Commission on October 20. The Bay of Plenty Regional Council would be regularly updated on the progress of the work their donation was funding, Ms Grant said.

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council had also sent senior, experienced staff to assist during the two weeks of earthquake response work in the Canterbury Civil Defence Emergency Management’s regional headquarters, “The Bunker,” at Environment Canterbury’s Kilmore St offices. This hands-on, practical approach from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and from other regional councils throughout the country in supplying staff to share the workload at short notice, was welcomed and applauded by Environment Canterbury Commissioner Rex Williams.

“We were heartened to see regional council staff from across the country work in a number of key Civil Defence roles in the Christchurch bunker during the response period,” he said.

John Cronin, chair of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, noted that the northern region was also prone to serious natural events from earthquake to floods, and the catastrophic effects these could have on essential infrastructure.