The only structural engineer to assess the Canterbury Television (CTV) building after a major earthquake in September 2010 has agreed his finding could be read as "code" for it being safe to occupy.
However, David Coatsworth yesterday told the Royal Commission into Building Failures in the Canterbury Earthquakes he could not recall being specifically asked if the CTV building was safe before it collapsed, killing 115 people, in the 6.3 magnitude earthquake on February 22, 2011.
Mr Coatsworth, a senior structural engineer for CPG New Zealand, visually inspected the building on September 29, 2010, less than a month after the magnitude 7.1 quake hit Canterbury. It had already been "green-stickered" by the Christchurch City Council.
His damage report in October 2010 stated the building "does exhibit considerable damage with regard to linings and finishings".
"There is also some minor structural damage, but there are no obvious structural failures. In that respect, we believe that the building has performed reasonably well."
Mr Coatsworth told the inquiry yesterday: "If I had seen anything to warrant it, I would have closed the building."
He said even if asked, he could not give any assurance of the building being safe to occupy.
"I don't recall being asked if the building was safe at any time."
When questioned further by a lawyer at yesterday's hearing, Mr Coatsworth agreed the comments in his damage report about the building performing reasonably well and having no obvious structural failure could be taken as "code" for his view that the building was safe to occupy.
Asked again if he thought the building was safe at the time, he said: "I didn't say that, and the word safe is a relative word.""What I was saying is that capacity of the building hadn't been significantly reduced."
Mr Coatsworth was unable to get structural drawings for the building from building manager John Drew or the Christchurch City Council when carrying out his inspection.
He said his role was to look for damage in the building. However, his report would not quantify the extent of the damage, such as length of cracks or plasterboard that needed replacing. He said he expected the damage he had reported would be quantified and then repairs costed and carried out.
Mr Coatsworth said he relived his inspection "over and over", and asked himself if there was anything he could have done differently.
The hearings on the CTV building are expected to last eight weeks.
