MINUTES
WELLINGTON BRANCH
TRAINING AND NETWORKING EVENT
held on
Tuesday, 19th June at 3.30pm
at
Attendance:
Fire and Emergency New Zealand: Wayne Goodfellow, Jessica Keltie
Kapiti Coast District Council: Katharine Wheeler
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment: Murray Usmar
National Consultants Limited: Natalie Hardy
Retired Member: George Mason
Wellington City Council: Peter Burnet, Mark Fitzpatrick, Steve Kallahar, Maggie Kay, Tim Watson
Guests:
BOINZ: Samantha Bryant, Henry Cassin, Nicola Hakes, Nick Hill
ENGEO: Guy Cassidy, Karen Jones
Wellington City Council: Jeremy Strong
Apologies:
Fire and Emergency New Zealand: Hayley Bush, Dominic Hare, Murray Kidd
Holmes Farsight LP: Jon Astwood
Hutt City Council: Craig Ewart
Life Member: Richard Toner
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment: Richard London
Wellington City Council: Barry Harlen
Welcome:
Branch Chair Wayne Goodfellow opened the meeting, welcoming members, new members, and guests to the Fire and Emergency National Headquarters space. Wayne then extended a special welcome to the meetings guest speaker - Guy Cassidy
Previous Minutes:
The previous minutes were distributed on the BOINZ website. Wayne asked two attending members to confirm that the minutes were a true and correct record.
Moved: Maggie Kay Seconded: Natalie Hardy
General Business:
- Henry Cassin BOINZ Membership Relations Coordinator reminded Licensed and Accredited members the annual CPD lodgements period is ending. If you have not uploaded your CPD points to the website, make sure you do before the end of June. If you have any questions, contact Henry on 04 473 6002 or Membership@boinz.org.nz
- Sam Bryant BOINZ Marketing and Events Manager advised the Senior Building Controls Officials Forum (SBCO) registrations are now open. Reminding members, they can register online, or they can contact her on 04 473 6005 or Events@boinz.org.nz
- Nicola Hakes BOINZ Accreditation Manager let members know about an upcoming Accredited Building Surveyors course in Wellington 19-21st July.
- Nick Hill gave a brief BOINZ update to members.
- The Board met 19th May 2019 and some key points were:
- There was an allocation of more funding for training development.
- 2020 Conference has a new time frame of Sunday-Tuesday. This will hopefully assist both members and their employers and acknowledges a personal commitment to skills and training uptake.
- Nick will also look to attend the next Wellington meeting to provide members with a more comprehensive Institute overview and update if that worked for the branch.
- Wayne Goodfellow Branch Chair informed members it is National Volunteer Week and thanked all members for volunteering their time to be at the meeting. He also mentioned that currently there are over eight thousand volunteer firefighters in New Zealand.
- Wayne also advised that he is now looking to form an executive committee for the Branch made up of at least one member from every council in the Wellington Branch area along with any specialist members such as ABS members. He asked members to volunteer or at very least suggest names of members who would be interested
- Wayne is also, still looking for a Branch Secretary. Please nominate yourself if you interested by contacting Wayne Goodfellow or Henry Cassin at Membership@boinz.org.nz. It is a role that is rewarding in that it advances one's skills and networks.
Guest Speaker:
Wayne Goodfellow welcomed ENGEO Chief Operating Officer - Guy Cassidy to the floor for his presentation: Geotechnical Engineering - It's Use, Misuse and Potential for Enhancing Building Performance.
The key points of Guys presentation are:
- Steep sites
- Soft compressible soils
- Liquefaction and lateral spread
- Uncontrolled fills
- Variable natural geology
- Foundations and Retaining Walls.
Geotechnical Engineering is governed by Engineering New Zealand, although the role title is slowly changing to Ground Engineering Professionals or Geo-Professionals.
To give an idea of how horribly things can go wrong in his profession, Guy showed members a photo of a significant multi-story building that had fallen on its side. The building had fallen in such a way that little had come apart or been destroyed indicating the building was structurally sound and secure. However, he explained the reason it had fallen over was due to a drainage issue beneath the ground. This issue would have been caught by a Geotechnical Engineering investigator and appropriate engineering solutions.
Guy explained that often Geotechnical Engineers are seen as "the bad guys" or dealing in "voodoo or dark magic". Their profession falls in a space where Geology and Engineering meet and gives them the knowledge to tell an Architect their plans won't work.
As an example, Guy spoke about the recently constructed Wellington Deloitte building at 20 Custom House Quay. The original plans had been to demolish the previous buildings twelve stories, leave the two-story basement underground and build up from there. As they were going through the design phase Guy asked the developers if they had calculated the building would not topple and pull the two basement levels out of the ground with it. The watermark line was only a few centimetres beneath the basement, and this had not been thought of until Guy had brought it up.
Another issue a Geotechnical Engineer may run into is, liquefaction. Guy discussed the 1964 earthquake in Nigata, Japan. He showed photos of buildings half submerged into the ground. This is where the ground has liquified during the earthquake - similar to Christchurch
Guy introduced another situation regarding a Crofton Downs residential development, where a developer wanted to create an area to build a significant number of homes on a hillside. In a testing phase, Geotechnical Engineers found that some sort of unidentifiable petroleum had contaminated the earthworks. To correct this issue and allow for the developers' desire to have a large flat building site; the developers needed to complete 140,000 cubic meters of earthworks before they could safely build 141 homes in the area.
Guy summarised by advising that recent regulatory work has revealed an apparent lack or absence of appropriate Geo-Professional input. There is also a lack of collaboration between resource and building consent teams which leads to a lack of direction.
Guy feels there is an opportunity to raise the bar and create better standards in the industry and is working hard to achieve this goal.
Please find Guys PowerPoint presentation attached to these minutes.
Questions:
To Guy Cassidy:
Q: On the proposal of the Building Legislative reform in respect of engineer disciplines, do you think this will level the playing field?
A: There is a lot of merit in the proposal, it is just not 100% optimal yet.
Q: Regarding Crofton Downs, what is the driver for a developer to go through all that earth moving work?
A: The developer wanted to fill as much of the space as flat as they possible to maximise the number of house builds. It is also easier and more economical to build houses on flat land.
Q: What is the cost of a Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) scan?
A: Around $1,000 for one, $1,500 for two.
To Samantha Bryant:
Q: Is the 2019 SBCO technical program available yet?
A: It is very close, but it is very different and exciting - about 2 weeks away.
Next Meeting:
4th September - Kapiti Coast
Wayne Goodfellow extended a special thank you to all in attendance and to all guest presenters. He then closed the meeting at 5.15pm.
Wayne Goodfellow
Wellington Branch Chair
