N E W S Leading gases and engineering company BOC has announced the appointment of John Evans as managing director, BOC South Pacific. The 30-year industry veteran has a deep understanding of the BOC business after leading its subsidiary Elgas, Australia’s largest LPG marketer and importer. Mr Evan's key priorities will be safety, customer experience and driving the diverse BOC business across its key markets in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. “BOC has a huge range of products and services, an extensive supply network and some of the best technical experts and engineers in the world,” says Mr Evans. “We need to refine our organisation to support constantly changing markets. We are also innovating service models – from digital and online solutions, to a more agile retail network. “I look forward to working with our customers, industry and governments to ensure critical energy supplies and to foster a more research and scientific based economy.” Mr Evans is the vice chairman of the Gas Energy Association and head of the BOC Regional Executive Board. He has a PhD in chemical engineering and industrial chemistry from the University of New South Wales. 10 February 2017 Engineers support Council’s precautionary approach to Wellington buildings Engineers say some Wellington buildings need targeted checks in the interests of public safety. New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) president Peter Smith says that after completing hundreds of rapid assessments, engineers have developed a profile of Wellington buildings that suffered the most damage in the Kaikoura earthquake or are susceptible to a similar future event. “The Council is being proactive in requiring all buildings fitting this profile to have targeted evaluations. We fully support the measures that the Council is taking,” says Mr Smith. “The buildings that need targeted evaluation share key characteristics. These include being medium height and having concrete frames with precast floors." Other characteristics include being sited on soft soils or ridgelines, having significant damage to non-structural elements, demonstrating signs of stretch in carpet tiles or ceilings, or damage to façades. “This quake has generated severe shaking in buildings with these characteristics. Some of these buildings have been tested beyond their design loadings.” Structural Engineering Society (SESOC) president Paul Campbell says engineers now understand that damage from the Kaikoura earthquake in Wellington was highly selective. “As well as carrying out hundreds of assessments, engineers have been working hard to analyse emerging patterns of damage across Wellington buildings,” Mr Campbell says. Mr Campbell says the targeted damage evaluations mandated by the Council will involve reviewing structural drawings and are likely to be invasive. This means potentially taking up some floor coverings, stripping off selected wall linings and inspecting ceiling spaces to look for specific patterns of damage. “How long it takes depends on the size of the building and availability of drawings but you would normally expect the All Christmases came at once for Otago Polytechnic engineering student, Ewan Baker. He’s won a prestigious national award, and a coveted apprenticeship at Scott Technology in Dunedin. Ewan beat 30 other applicants from throughout the country to win the ‘2016 Bill Buckley Scholarship Award’. The award was announced at the Maintenance Engineering Society’s annual conference in Hamilton late last year. He didn’t expect to win the award at all. “I only found out I could apply two days before the closing date, but I thought I may as well. I was surprised that even though I had to rush to put together the application, my results and achievements were enough to carry me through,” he says. Lecturer, Stuart Hewson is impressed with Ewan’s accolade, “I’m not surprised though, he takes every opportunity to learn new things and inspection component to be completed in a day.” Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand chief executive Susan Freeman-Greene says engineers remain concerned about public safety in and around buildings categorised as earthquake prone, given the current heightened risk of aftershocks. “The energy of the Kaikoura earthquake wasn’t focused on shorter, stiffer buildings, some of which are categorised as earthquake prone. “It’s important to realise that earthquake prone buildings are likely to perform poorly in an earthquake centred closer to Wellington.” Ms Freeman-Greene says structural engineers are being brought in from outside Wellington to help meet current demand. “IPENZ appreciates the close collaboration between the Council and the engineering profession.” gain knowledge.” Ewan initially thought he’d study engineering at university, and signed up in Australia. But after one year, he realised Otago Polytechnic had everything he wanted. “I love the hands on work at Otago Polytechnic, and also really enjoy the theory and design. Now that I’m working full time at Scott Technology, they also really encourage those aspects,” Ewan says. Ewan has completed his Certificate in Engineering (Level 3), and still has three papers left in his New Zealand Diploma in Engineering – Mechanical Engineering. He’ll finish those while working full time in 2017. As for the future, Ewan’s taking it all in his stride. “It’s been an amazing year, with a lot happening. I think I’ll just keep my head down and move forward – that’s worked for me so far.” John Evans appointed md BOC South Pacific National award for engineering student
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