QE11 Park was also damaged by the Feb 22, M6.3 Killer Quake & liquefactioned by the June 13 Quake, M6.3, as the park was between Travis Wetland westwards, North New Brighton & Pacific eastwards.
Where there was water there was liquefaction damage, like Avon River water, nearby Travis Wetland water, waterway water, underground water between, causing muddy mayhem. Quakes were reverting huge urban areas to swamps.
Northwards in Parklands, Leah's relatives lived near Queenspark Dr. Fond memories of Parklands, as the family was kind to us after our arrival in Christchurch 16 years before. Post quakes, 2020, Jake would flat at Parklands, Cottonwood St.
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned gate, EQC temp offices, Bower Ave
28.06.11. June 13 quake, Dick Tayler Dr view, EQC cars parked on Bower Ave
Tues 28.06.11. From liquefactioned New Brighton Rd by Avon River, I drove up Bower Ave , largely cleared of June 13 liquefaction mud, Avon River side. Post quake road works were done on Bower Ave, shingle patches all along. Further up Bower Ave near QE11Park, it was muddier.
28.06.11. June 13 quake, QE11 Park road signs, Dick Tayler Dr, QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake sinkholes, Mark Treffers Dr, QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Mark Treffers Dr, QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction sinkholes, Mark Treffers Dr, QE11 Park
Parked at Bower Ave / Dick Tayler Dr entrance to QE11 Park, by EQC's white, porta-cabin offices, 4 EQC Toyota cars parked on Bower Ave, opp a ghost, brick gables fallen, I saw clear through the roof. EQC minions looked comfortable in their temp offices, flash cars parked nearby. Passing citizens who'd endured many quakes since Sept 4 Darfield Quake didn't look comfortable.
Off Colombo St, Beckenham, I'd seen EQC porta-cabins by South Library too.
QE11 Park: EQC fence sign:
EQC
HELPING THE RECOVERY IN
CANTERBURY
EQC Toyotas also sported those signs on car doors. But EQC's HELPING was slow!
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned sports field, Mark Treffers Dr, QE11 Park
EQC govt employees, who had to assess & pay quake claims, were well paid by taxpayers, but were slow with payouts post Sept 4 Darfield Quake. They whined they would take years to settle over 370 000 claims from quakes, Sept 4 Darfield Quake to June 13 Quake. Yet EQC expected owners of damaged properties to submit claims within a 3 months deadline after each quake!
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction volcanoes & sinkholes, QE11 Park sports field, Ascot Ave
Trekked QE11 Park & liquefactioned roads, huge sinkholes in places & June 13 Quake, liquefaction volcanoes & sinkholes on Mark Treffers Dr & on sports grounds. Some grey quakemire was shovelled into heaps on roadside grass. Joggers used the 2.1km Fitness & Walking Track & did exercises around QE11 Park.
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Fitness & Walking Track, QE11 Park, Ascot Ave,
Ascot Ave: Snapped liquefaction volcanoes on sports fields, then looked at liquefactioned houses. By Ascot Community Centre, petanque players played on liquefactioned ground, grey liquefaction volcano in the carpark.
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Ascot Ave by QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake damaged houses, Ascot Ave by QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake, Ascot Community Centre, liquefactioned carpark, Ascot Ave
28.06.11. June 13 quake, petanque players by liquefaction volcano, Ascot Ave
28.06.11. 30 km/h speed limit sign. June 13 quake, road works on liquefactioned Beach Rd nr QE11 Park
Beach Rd: Trekked past Ascot Golf Course, post quake road works progressed along the soggy road.
Frosts Rd: Pukekos pecked grass near a Travis Wetland sign. Beyond, wetland willows stood bare in wintry gloom.
Frosts Rd crossed swampland, Travis Wetland one side, Ascot Golf Course the other. Beside Ascot Golf Course stream, Frosts Rd tarseal footpath was buckled, cracked by quakes. By Robin Tait Dr entrance to QE11 Park, about 400m of stream / roadside footpath was quake-sunk below Frosts Rd level, flooded with red Azolla fern & green Lemna duckweed. From Frosts Rd it was impossible to enter QE11 Park, as Robin Tait Dr entrance was flooded, huge cracks went along the road to the Athletics Stadium ghost & Gymnastics Stadium.
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned footpath, Frosts Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, Azolla fern filled stream, Frosts Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned roadside, Frosts Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction flooded footpath, Frosts Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, Azolla fern filled stream & liquefactioned footpath, Frosts Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake flooded footpath, Frosts Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake flooded, Frosts Rd entrance along Robin Tait Dr to QE11 Park,
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned roadside, Frosts Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, Travis Wetland pukekos, Frosts Rd / Travis Rd
Sludged past the flooded footpath, snapped the WW1 poppy memorial across the traffic circle by Anzac Dr.
Travis Rd: By QE11 Park again, I snapped grey quakemire. A front-end-loader shovelled shingle onto roadside piles.
28.06.11. June 13 quake damaged footpath, Frosts Rd / Travis Rd. WW1 poppy memorial, Anzac Dr beyond
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Travis Rd by QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned lawn, steel mesh fence cordoned bldg, QE11 Park, Travis Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Travis Rd by QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake, front end loader by liquefactioned QE11 Park, Travis Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, QE11 Park entrance sign, Travis Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, yellow & blue portaloos, Gymnastics Stadium entrance, QE11 Park
Trekked to liquefactioned Gymnastics Stadium where Luke did gym during Burnside High School days. Gym was open, carpark liquefactioned masses of grey volcanic mud. Huge cracks went along Robin Tait Dr to Frosts Rd.
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction volcano, Gymnastics Stadium carpark, QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake cracked carpark by Gymnastics Stadium & Athletics Stadium, QE11 Park
28.06.11 June 13 quake, liquefactioned & quake cracked Robin Tait Dr, QE11 Park
Athletics Stadium ghost was steel mesh fence cordoned. Beyond a locked gate, the track was buckled, cracked. Quakemire volcanoes polluted grass on the track oval. Sorry sight in a famous stadium. Athletics Stadium would be demolished, end of 2012.
28.06.11. Feb 22 quake & June 13 quake liquefactioned QE11 Park Athletics Stadium. The stadium would be demolished, 2012
28.06.11. Feb 22 quake & June 13 quake liquefactioned & buckled athletics track, QE11 Park Athletics Stadium. The stadium would be demolished, 2012
28.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake & June 13 quake, QE11 Park Athletics stadium. The stadium would be demolished, 2012
By QE11 Preschool a sign directed people along a new, shingle path to the Gymnastics Stadium. Pools & Fitness Centre ghost by Athletics Stadium ghost was steel mesh fence & orange, plastic, tape cordoned. Trekked past the cracked pond, looking at excavators & power cable trucks in the carpark. During 1980s, working for De Beers personnel, Kleinzee & Koffiefontein diamond mines, I'd written many job descriptions for earthmoving machine operators, so I liked seeing excavators & more massive machinery roaming Christchurch during quake years.
28.06.11. June 13 quake, preschool signs, QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake, digger buckets, contractor vehicles, QE11 Park carpark
QE11 Park: Trekked across the cricket oval, snapping sinkholes & liquefaction volcanoes polluting the pitch & cricket field. Some sinkholes were more then 2m diameter, more than 1m deep. Every square millimetre of grass I walked was grey quakemired. Green grass hid the extent of liquefaction damages, reversion to swampland.
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction sinkholes, cricket oval, QE11 Park
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction sinkholes, Dick Tayler Dr, QE11 Park
Drove up Bower Ave a bit to see Parklands, parked near Beach Rd crossing. Bower Ave thereafter, deeply liquefactioned. Sucker truck on Beach Rd cnr sucked quakemire from sewage pipes. Parklands quakemire was sandier, like wet beach sand, less grey than other Christchurch quakemire.
28.06.11. ROAD CLOSED. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. June 13 quake, blue, sewage sucker truck, Bower Ave / Beach Rd traffic circle
28.06.11. ROAD CLOSED. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. June 13 quake, Beach Rd closed, Bower Ave traffic circle
28.06.11. June 13 quake damaged Beach Rd island, Bower Ave / Beach Rd traffic circle
Bower Ave: Quake tilted, power pole, printed sign:
PLEASE CONSIDER US
AND
SLOW
DOWN
FROM THE RESIDENTS
28.06.11. SLOW DOWN sign on quake tilted power pole. June 13 quake damaged housing, Bower Ave, nr Beach Rd crossing
Bower Ave beyond Queenspark Dr junction: Closed to traffic, road works continuing. Two weeks post June 13 Quake, quakemire was mostly removed. I saw new houses in Forest Park en route to Bottle Lake Forest Park. I wouldn't buy there, too much liquefaction.
Parklands East would soon be deeply liquefactioned again by the Xmas Quake Swarm, 2011.
28.06.11. NO ENTRY. Orange, plastic bollard, orange, plastic, road cone cordon. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned roads & housing, Bower Ave, between Beach Rd & Queenspark Dr intersections
Driveway, hand-written sign:
SLIPPERY
DRIVE UP
Months post quakes, Council used Bottle Lake Forest Park as a raw sewage dump, after sucker trucks cleared trashed infrastructure. From the dump pond, there was pollution danger of sewage leaking into the Pacific. Locals endured truck traffic shaking their fragile homes. Sewage stink, bacteria infested dust irked too.
28.06.11. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned road & housing, Bower Ave, between Queenspark Dr & Broadhaven Ave junctions
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Rue De La Mare / Bower Ave
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Rue De La Mare, Parklands
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Bower Ave housing, Forest Park
I didn't take many Parklands snaps, as my camera memory card was expiring. But all Parklands roads I trekked & side roads I saw were liquefactioned, mud mostly cleared: Bower Ave, Broadhaven Ave, Bottle Lake Dr, Inwoods Rd, Queenspark Dr. Little did I know, the area would be liquefactioned again during the Xmas Quake Swarm when I would return for more liquefaction snaps.
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Bower Ave / Broadhaven Ave
28.06.11. June 13 quake, white, plastic, water tank, liquefactioned Bottle Lake Forest Park, Broadhaven Ave
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned roads & housing, Broadhaven Ave
Several road works vehicles & road gangs cleared silt & fixed roads. Sucker trucks roamed, including a CCTV van for checking silt obstructions in drains, sewage pipes. Queenspark Dr shopping centre buzzed, overflow trade from red zoned, cordoned CBD.
28.06.11. Blue digger. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned, Bottle Lake Dr
28.06.11. June 13 quake, white, sewage, sucker truck & CCTV van, Bottle Lake Dr
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction & road works seen from Bottle Lake Dr
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction & road works, Inwoods Rd
Tree, hand-written, red, speed limit sign:
30k
28.06.11. Plastic tape, orange, plastic, road cone cordon around a sinkhole. June 13 quake, liquefactioned Hurst Pl, off Queenspark Dr
*Trekked Bower Ave, Dick Tayler Dr, Mark Treffers Dr, Ascot Ave, Beach Rd, Frosts Rd, Travis Rd, QE11 Park, Broadhaven Ave, Bottle Lake Dr, Inwoods Rd, Queenspark Dr. 165 snaps.
Coda:
01.11.11. As QE11 Park was so liquefactioned, the Dept of Building & Housing blew up bits of QE11 Park grounds, simulating quakes, to write geotech report recommendations for quake proof house foundations. (Geotech would do similar underground explosions at QE11 Park in Oct 2013, authorised by CERA minister Brownlee, again simulating quakes seeing how ground reacted, to construct stronger house foundations. OneNews). But foundation techniques were already tried, tested elsewhere: pounding soil; thicker concrete slabs; deeper piles; underground dams with wooden or concrete piles... Shocked people in nearby houses like Ascot Ave had to endure explosion tremors, after enduring 4 major quakes & 1 000s of aftershocks so far.
Sept 2012. Travis Rd: When I drove past QE11 Park, I would see 2 big cranes above QE11 Park Athletics Stadium, demolition in progress.
Mar 2013. Slow EQC would whine that EQC staff were bullied by irate citizens. Thus EQC increased security guards at EQC offices, like Bower Ave depot, installing razor wire ab fencing. But EQC had messed citizens around for years post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake.
EQC was a small govt dept pre quakes, then expanded quickly post quakes to process 1 000s of claims. EQC had to assess claims that were undercap $100 000 dollars & pass on overcap claims to insurers. Therein lay EQC hassles for claimants, as EQC delayed inspections, or lost reports & was responsible for monopoly Fletcher, EQR, doing undercap repairs. It would be years before many claimants were assessed overcap by slow EQC. Claimants then had to claim from insurers.
It would've been better if EQC did not control undercap repairs. Insurers should've first sorted out claims & repairs, then insurers should've invoiced specific undercap $100 000 claims from EQC, a bank for undercap claims, after insurers had processed claimants repairs. But NZ National govt insisted EQC controlled all assessments & undercap repairs, before passing overcap claims to insurers, thus forming a monstrous jam & hassles for claimants. Never mind botched repairs by Fletcher. CERA minister Brownlee would persist in supporting slow EQC for years.
12.02.15. The Press would report that Avonside Girls High & Shirley Boys High would be rebuilt at QE11 Park. Both schools were trashed by the 22.02.11 Killer Quake. Why did Education Minister, Hekia Parata want to rebuild two high schools on quake trashed land, so damaged that QE11 Stadium & sports / recreation bldgs were demolished post quakes?
2022. At rebuilt QE11 Park, I trekked past rebuilt Avonside Girls High next to rebuilt Shirley Boys High. Next door to the rebuilt schools was rebuilt public pools & giant waterpark slide, spanking new blue. Behind were sports fields & rebuilt Christchurch School of Gymnastics.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
