Laycock's Demolition, CBD-Cordon, Zone 3

Laycock's demolition focus. National-State-of-Emergency, 14.03.11. ROAD CLOSED. Treking the CBD-cordon, zone 3, post M6.3, 22 February 2011 quake, I came upon demolition of Laycock's Collision Repairs, an old, brick & concrete building, Durham St Nth / Salisbury St. It was the second demolition I'd seen in half an hour. The first I saw was old, brick Saggio di vino, Bealey Ave, damaged in the 4 September 2010 quake, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned, scaffolded for months, then trashed in the 22 February 2011 quake.

Laycock's was on the edge of the no access, red-zone, CBD-cordon. Two NZDF-soldiers emerged from their steel-mesh-fence-cordoned / makeshift blue-tarp-hut, controlling people-access & vehicle-access to the red-zone, while the demolition-digger lunged, grabbed & bashed. Several bystanders watched the demolition.

A Canterbury University professor, engineer, five weeks post 22 February 2011 quake, blathered in The Press, 28.03.11, about his research need for Christchurch quake-damaged buildings. He offered no condolences, nor remorse, to families of 185 people killed in the 22 February 2011 quake, but insulted families with his research suggestion. Never mind physical & mental injuries to thousands of citizens. He'd had enough time to research pre-quake buildings & quaked-buildings post 4 September 2010 quake for five months during 1000s of aftershocks.

"The urgent short-term necessity is to investigate and test damaged buildings before they are demolished. Longer-term education and research is needed to develop the research capability, in both staff and equipment, to transfer the results into design of future New Zealand buildings and infrastructure.

The Christchurch earthquake represents by far the largest 'experimental test' ever done on modern buildings designed and built to top international standards.

The damaged 'test specimens' are urgently awaiting scientific investigation and detailed analysis before they disappear..."

Will CTV & PGC multi-storeys be amongst the professors' "test specimens"? Both buildings collapsed in the 22 February 2011 quake, killing people. Many buildings had already vanished in the National State-of-Emergency, CBD forbidden zones, including the no access, red-zone, where design & engineering mistakes would be buried by demolishers.

I watched Laycock's demolition for about 10 minutes, not staying long, as it was midday sun, 30C. I feared asbestos-dust, brick-dust & concrete- dust gusting from the demolition. The NZDF-soldiers wore dust-masks. I wanted to see more of the CBD-Cordon, zone 3.









































*Trekked Durham St Nth. 32 snaps.

Together with neighbouring demolition-sites along Salisbury St, Lacock's demo-site would become a shingle carpark for Christchurch Casino patrons & business-folk. After many CBD-demolitions many shingle carparks would evolve in Christchurch-CBD.

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.