-
The CTV building before the deadly quake. - Source: ONE News -
Watch Video
-
Related
A draughtsman credited with working on the failed Canterbury Television (CTV) building in the 1980s has told the Royal Commission he has no recollection of the project.
Terry Horn, who was employed for Alan Reay Consultants for 10 years, gave evidence at the Royal Commission of Inquiry hearing into the collapse of the CTV building this morning.
Horn told the Commission that while the firm's timesheets show he spent 141 hours on the CTV project, he has no memory of it, and disagrees with the accuracy of the documents.
"That information does not change my recollection as recorded in my first statement of evidence, and I have no memory of the CTV building project.
"But it was possible I had detailed the foundation reinforcing," Horn said.
He also said that Alan Reay made his employees very aware of project deadlines.
"We were required to set out buildings to achieve as much efficiency as possible, by using steel products near their design limits, and repeating this as many times as possible.
"He [Reay] would check that we were going to get work done in time... rather than the detail of the project," Horn said.
Horn told the Commission the drawings of the building were not in his "style", and if he had seen them he would have questioned the engineer on aspects of its design.
Following on from Horn's evidence, Wayne Strachan - a draughtsman employed by Alan Reay in 1986 - also said he has no memory of working on the design of the CTV building.
"When I was first contacted by the Royal Commission of Inquiry earlier this year I had no recollection of being involved in draughting the CTV Building," Strachan told the hearing.
Both Horn and Strachan agreed that it was most likely that a junior draughtsman had done the work - despite being the least experienced of the three men.
One hundred and fifteen people died when the CTV building collapsed after the February 2011 Christchurch quake.
More than 80 witnesses will be called during the CTV inquiry, which covers the initial building consent issued by Christchurch City Council, the construction and design, identification of a structural weakness in 1990, and the assessment after Boxing Day quakes in 2010.