Lyttelton Port of Christchurch Seismic Resiliance from an Owner's Perspective

Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) is situated on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, which lies south east of Australia. Neither of the two major reclamations at LPC experienced significant liquefaction during the four significant earthquakes of 2010/2011, which caused accelerations between 1.2 and 5 times previous design code levels. The epicentre of the most damaging earthquake was some 4 km distant and only 5 km deep. Significant damage to wharves, sea walls, and pavements occurred. Most key wharf assets will require complete reconstruction. This paper considers the asset management planning undertaken prior to the events including: fragility modelling, the damage sustained, and the resulting outages that occurred. It also discusses how the prior planning and fragility modelling assisted the work during the emergency and recovery periods. The effect of multiple heavily damaging earthquakes in close proximity to the port is also discussed.