On this National Shakeout Day, it seems only fitting to spotlight your New Children’s Hospital’s remarkable earthquake base isolators!
The new hospital is rated to withstand a once in a 2,500 year event, which will provide essential protection to patients and staff and ensure that the hospital is up and running after the Big One.
Pictured looking a little like a rocket on a launchpad, the building rests on 45 vast Triple Pendulum Base Isolators, which have been specifically designed and manufactured in San Francisco – our seismic sister city. The isolators will provide protection from seismic shaking allowing the new building to sway as much as 1.5 metres in two directions. Picture an ice cube on a plate, if you shake the plate back and forth, the ice cube slides to stay nearly stationary.
When Hospi visited the site last year he was particularly impressed to learn that each isolator weighs in at 4.2 tonnes, and that they are the largest triple pendulum isolators installed in NZ to date. The link bridge that will connect the new hospital with the main hospital campus is also expertly engineered to take into account buildings with two different seismic sways. We think this is all very reassuring!! #shakeout #saferkids #dropcoverhold