Mark Vender
The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) is undertaking an out-of-cycle amendment for the 2019 edition of the National Construction Code (NCC). It will be known as NCC 2019 Amendment 1 and is now open for public consultation.
The amendment will include:
- Enhanced fire safety measures for early childhood centres in high-rise buildings.
- A defined term for “building complexity” to be used to identify buildings for which increased supervision of design and construction is appropriate through subsequent initiatives being developed in response to recommendations of the Building Confidence report.
- Provisions that set out the process to be followed, including the creation of a Performance Based Design Brief, to improve the quality and clarity of Performance Solutions for both approval and auditing purposes. This is also in response to recommendations of the Building Confidence report.
- Clarification of existing concessions for low-rise Class 2 and 3 buildings.
- Reference to a new Technical Specification for the permanent labelling of Aluminium Composite Panels.
- Minor typographical corrections.
The ABCB has released a public comment draft for NCC 2019 Amendment 1. It includes proposed amendments for Volumes One and Two, the NCC Governing Requirements and common Schedules. All relevant documents can be downloaded from the ABCB’s Consultation Hub.
Interested stakeholders are invited to provide comment on the draft by 11.59pm Friday, October 11.
Following consideration of submissions received, the resolved content of the Amendment is anticipated to be adopted by states and territories on June 1, 2020.
Comments can be submitted here.
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