Media Release

Structural Engineering Taskforce advocates
changes to NZ building environment
Monday, 1 December 2003

Further developing standards and codes of practice in New Zealand’s building industry is just one of seven recommendations made by the Institutution of Professional Engineers (IPENZ) Structural Engineering Taskforce, in response to issues raised by John Scarry concerning the New Zealand’s construction industry and structural engineering profession.

“The Taskforce, set up earlier this year, investigated the practice of structural engineering in New Zealand. The final report confirms their preliminary findings released earlier this year,” said IPENZ Chief Executive, Andrew Cleland.

“Some concerns were expressed by engineers over technologies and products used in the building industry, as well as practice. However, the Building Bill, presently before the Government Administration Select Committee, has taken on board many of our recommendations, so already there is in process an improvement to New Zealand’s building environment,” said Dr Cleland.

The taskforce’s seven recommendations, aimed at dealing with systemic failures in the regulatory environment of the building industry are:

The development of further standards and codes of practice.
Stringent competence assessment of structural engineers prior to their registration.
Professional involvement through all stages of project delivery.
An expanded technical leadership role for the Government’s central regulator (currently the BIA) in providing a code of practice for Territorial Local Authorities to follow.
Improved consent and audit processes in application of the Building Act.
Enforcing the responsibility of building owners.
Improved evaluation of new materials, procedures and processes prior to their use.

“No specific buildings posing a significant and immediate risk were notified to the Taskforce during their work. However, IPENZ is taking actions, including some in partnership with the Building Industry Authority, which will assist in improving practices as recommended by the Taskforce, and help the profession as a whole,” said Dr Cleland.

Further reading.

IPENZ action points to the Structural Taskforce (PDF 86KB)

See the full Structural Engineering Taskforce Report (PDF 86KB)

The seven principal recommended actions with full descriptions.

1 Development of Standards and Codes of Practice.
There is an urgent need to develop more comprehensive standards (for practices that can be described in a prescriptive way) e.g. through Standards NZ processes; and codes of practice (for practices requiring substantial professional judgement) through the professional body. A funding model independent of commercial interests within the industry is required. The development of standards for the building industry should be controlled and commissioned by the Building Industry Authority or its replacement.

2 Identification of competent structural engineers.
Competence assessment of structural engineers must be stringent. Engineers working outside their competence should be identified and censured where appropriate.

3 Professional involvement through all stages of project delivery.
It is essential that professional involvement is maintained throughout the implementation (construction) phases of the work. Ideally the original designers should observe the construction phase. At the completion of construction the design professionals should issue producer statements to validate any design variations that have occurred during construction, and to confirm that they are satisfied that what has been constructed meets the design intent.

4 Expanded technical leadership role for Government’s central regulator (currently the BIA) in providing a code of practice for Territorial Local Authorities to follow.
The central agency must take a foresight and leadership role so that problems are anticipated and assertive actions taken to ensure the regulatory regime is kept relevant and up-to-date as innovations are made. This will help improve the standards set by the Territorial Local Authorities and certifiers.

5 Improved Consent and Audit Processes.
The variability in the enforcement of standards between Territorial Local Authorities, and the unacceptably low standards in some cases, must be eliminated. This could be by ensuring that consent approvals and code compliance certification take place only after high-quality evaluation processes, including peer review by expert structural engineers where the building has non-standard structural features. Territorial Local Authorities must establish a culture of complaining about the competence of engineers who present sub-standard work repeatedly, so that such practitioners can be investigated by the registering authority under the Chartered Professional Engineers of NZ Act 2002.

6 Responsibility of Building Owners.
Building owners must be required to employ or engage suitably qualified people for both design and construction, and must be made liable for the consequence of not doing so.

7 Evaluation of New Materials, Procedures and Processes.
A process needs to be established to exclude new materials with uncertain properties and performance in the New Zealand context from release on to the market and into use without thorough prior evaluation.

ENDS

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For more information contact:

Dr Andrew Cleland
Chief Executive
IPENZ Engineering New Zealand
Ph (04) 474 8935
Mob: 025 274 3555
CE@ipenz.org.nz

Or:
Michelle Duffy
IPENZ Media Manager
mduffy@ipenz.org.nz