FLOATING FOUNDATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 20862, 4 August 1931, Page 2

FLOATING FOUNDATIONS

LESSONS LEARNED IN HAWKE'S BAY Traversing the Hawke's Bay earthquake disaster, in the course of a conversation with an Eltham ‘Arcus le presentative, Dr , C., E. Adams, Government Seismologist, advanced an interesting theory. It was, he pointed out, not so much the class of material as how the building was constructed that counted when it came to earthquake resistance. Instancing his point, he said that subsequent to the big quake lie made an inspection of the Westshore Hotel at Petane, which is actually nearer the centre of the disturbance. than the devastated areas in Isapier. Save for the chimneys, this concrete building emerged scathless from the earthquake. The conclusion drawn was | that this particular building owed its immunity to the fact that it was not set up on piles. It simply rested on a} concrete bottom, which in turn rested j on a bed of shingle. It was not pinned j to the earth, and consequently did not ■ offer any resistance to the earthquake; after the shake it simply settled down on the shingle. Conversely, added itr Adams, he inspected one of the buildings which had crashed down at the , Greenmcadows Station. This j was a very stout, specially-constructed , concrete structure, but instead of resting on a bed of shingles it was pinned to the earth, and when the quake came it was crushed like an eggshell. The doctor hazarded the opinion that in consequence of the experience at Napier the system of floating foundations such as he had indicated would become increasingly in vogue.