Investigation into the Factors Affecting Costs of Earthquake Damage Repair Work

New Zealand is a nation prone to earthquakes. It is widely documented that continuous seismic activity can lead to the devastation of buildings and infrastructure. After such events, the strategy adopted by building owners on their decision of repair or rebuild has been based on independent professional assessments undertaken by engineers and builders as well as estimated repair costs budgeted by costing experts. There are currently some basic models available that pre-estimate the repair costs for earthquake damaged structures. These include the following probability based models; PACT, SLAT and SP3. However, research has identified that there are other factors affecting the repair costs associated with earthquake damaged buildings which are not entirely covered by these models. Document analysis, semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey has been conducted to identify and verify the above mentioned factors affecting repair costs of earthquake damaged buildings. These factors have been analysed and integrated into a theoretical cost estimation model which is represented as a poster. This theoretical model will be further developed into an actual cost estimation model as part of a PhD research project