14.12.11. Swanns Rd / River Rd view, orange, plastic, road cone cordon, orange, road pump, quake damaged Swanns Rd Bridge
14.12.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake ghost house, green portaloo, River Rd / Swanns Rd
Parked on Swanns Rd, as River Rd was road-blocked by a gang of road workers digging a hole on Avon River bank. Repairs went on at Avonside Girls HS, on the opp bank, Avonside Dr side.
14.12.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Green portaloo. Post quake, River Rd excavation site, nr Swanns Rd Bridge
14.12.11. Trash truck, River Rd, by Avon River
14.12.11. Quake ghost house, River Rd
Between Swanns Rd Bridge & Stanmore Rd Bridge, River Rd was bad: shingle, tarseal patches, cracked curbs & pavements. Ditto, other side of Stanmore Rd Bridge, towards Fitzgerald Ave, riverside slumping by bridges on both riverbanks.
14.12.11. River Rd view, quake ghost houses, Avonside Dr, by Avon River
14.12.11. Quake trashed, concrete block, garden wall, River Rd
14.12.11. Quake trashed, concrete curb, River Rd
14.12.11. River Rd view, Avon River, Avonside Dr / Woodham Rd / Linwood Ave crossing
14.12.11. River Rd view, Avon River, Avonside Dr
Avonside Dr: Daily, I drove over widening cracks & potholes, regularly tarsealed. 15 months post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake & 10 months post 22.02.11 Killer Quake, Avon River bank, still unstable, slumping, with the ebb & flow of tides. Daily pounding by heavy traffic aggravated slumping due to lateral spreading.
14.12.11. Quake ghost house, River Rd
14.12.11. Electrical substation. River Rd view, Avon River to Avonside Girls HS repair site
14.12.11. Quake ghost house, River Rd
River Rd: Many ghost houses, long grass in gardens, rank weeds, flowers & shrubs growing wild, obscuring driveways & broken houses. Some ghost houses had cut grass, but were uninhabited, windows closed, locked up. Some home owners maintained the illusion of inhabited houses, cutting grass to stop burglars.
14.12.11. Quake ghost house, River Rd
14.12.11. Quake ghost house, fallen chimney, River Rd
14.12.11. Quake house demolition site, River Rd
One big ghost house looked OK, but the side driveway & undercover parking was a mess: grey quakemire everywhere, boundary retaining wall, braced with planks.
14.12.11. Quake ghost house, River Rd
14.12.11. Wood braced, retaining wall, between quake ghost houses, River Rd
14.12.11. Quake ghost house, River Rd
14.12.11. Quake trashed / part repaired, River Rd / Stanmore Rd crossing, by Stanmore Rd Bridge
Rainy, little much action on River Rd: jogger, cyclist, wary woman peering from her first floor flat window. No one played tennis at Avonside Tennis Club, too wet. Yellow, rubbish truck rumbled by, stopping to empty the few rubbish bins from inhabited houses.
14.12.11. Avonside Tennis Club, River Rd
River Rd: Old houses, about half ghost houses. Old, brick houses & garden walls, shaken to bits. Bricks & stones lay where they fell. Saw big gaps in old, wooden, house walls in several ghost houses. Grey quakemire lay on driveways, 10 months post Feb 22 Killer Quake & 6 months post June 13 Quake.
14.12.11. River Rd view, upstream Avon River, nr Stanmore Rd Bridge
14.12.11. Ghost house, quake trashed, brick, garden wall, River Rd
14.12.11. Quake ghost house, River Rd
Avonside Dr: Across Avon River, houses looked in better condition, few ghost houses there, despite busy road traffic.
14.12.11. River Rd view across Avon River of Avonside Dr house. Roadside, green, plastic, sewage tank in foreground
River Rd / Fitzgerald Ave: Old, brick, ghost house: kaput, overgrown garden, wall cracks, gaps by windows, bricks fallen off walls. The house would be demolished post Xmas Quake Swarm.
14.12.11. Quake trashed / part repaired River Rd, between Stanmore Rd & Fitzgerald Ave crossings
14.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Quake trashed / part repaired, River Rd / Fitzgerald Ave junction
14.12.11. Quake trashed / part repaired, River Rd / Fitzgerald Ave junction view, "Pickwicks" demolition site, Fitzgerald Ave
I drove past that ghost house daily, dodging Fitzgerald Ave obstacle course: orange, plastic, bollard cordon & orange, plastic, road cone cordon, while repairs went on at northbound Fitzgerald Ave, which had collapsed in the Feb 22 Killer Quake by Avon Loop. Botched repair, as engineers failed to accommodate raised Avon River bed which would cause road flooding after heavy rains.
14.12.11. Quake ghost house, River Rd / Fitzgerald Ave. The house would be demolished post Xmas quake swarm
Fifteen months post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake, EQC, insurers, CERA & construction firms were delaying the CBD & residential housing rebuild, but were running out of excuses. The recently released Tonkin & Taylor geotech report said it was OK to rebuild on red zone Christchurch CBD land. Mayor Parker rejoiced. Never mind Avon River running through the red zone CBD & vast areas of the red zone CBD liquefactioned with 100s of CBD ghost bldgs demolished post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake. Many more demolitions still to go by CERA. Christchurch Fault, which damaged the CBD in the 26.12.10 Boxing Day Quake, ran under the CBD. Why did Tonkin & Taylor think Christchurch Fault was safe in the CBD red zone, when further downstream 1 000s of houses were red zoned?
Avon River ran beyond red zone CBD through red zone riverside suburbs to the Pacific. Massive areas in riverside suburbs were red zoned by CERA, 1 000s of people displaced. Tonkin & Taylor engineers & Council hadn't learnt a thing, biased for rebuilding on quaked CBD land. Council revised its CBD rebuild plan for CERA minister Brownlee to sign.
October 2012: Nearly a year later, the red zone, steel mesh fence cordoned CBD would still be occupied by CERA, red zone checkpoints still manned by NZDF soldiers. More demolitions had happened, but little rebuild had happened in the CBD, nor residential suburbs.
Ditto Nov 2013. NZDF soldiers would occupy the CBD for 28 months.
06.01.12. Two weeks post 23.12.11 Xmas Quake Swarm, I would look at Fitzgerald Ave Bridge & the brick, ghost house again, Fitzgerald Ave / River Rd. The house was trashed, more collapsed brickwork & a teetering front wall. I was spooked every time I snapped that brick house. The house would be demolished. The house was an example of dithering & delays regarding demolitions. It took several quakes before someone decided the dangerous house needed demolition.
River Rd houses I saw that day would be red zoned & demolished by CERA.
06.01.12. Quake trashed, brick house, River Rd / Fitzgerald Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. The house would be demolished
Fitzgerald Ave Bridge: Damaged in the 22.02.11 Killer Quake, concrete abutment tilted out of river mud at an odd angle, River Rd side. I'd seen several Avon River bridges with similar damages to abutments. Concrete span / abutment joins & steel handrail joins were my visual assessment of bridge damages, as spans shimmied against abutments during quakes, causing spalled concrete, cracks, buckled tarseals. Abutments often slid into mud at odd angles. Steel handrails often split at span / abutment joins. Handrail splits were often more than a foot apart, at odd angles, depending on how concrete structures below had moved during a quake. Quakes would cause bridge spans to horizontally rotate, either clockwise or anti-clockwise, leaving concrete span corners sticking out or withdrawn on the bridge deck. I saw that often on bridges. But the bridges were used daily for years during & after after quakes, despite damages.
06.01.12. Orange, plastic, road cones, orange / white, plastic, road barrier cordon. River Rd view, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge, towards "Pickwicks" demolition site, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
06.01.12. Quake tilted, cracked, concrete abutment, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge, River Rd / Fitzgerald Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. See quake split, steel handrail
It was time Council / SCIRT started fixing bridges & roads properly, as vehicle suspension fixers earned megabucks from wheel alignments & replacing broken suspensions caused by potholed roads, especially in suburbs east of Fitzgerald Ave. Years would pass before SCIRT completed repairs to damaged bridges.
*Trekked River Rd, Fitzgerald Ave. 86 snaps.
Coda:
2021. I would trek River Rd again between Stanmore Rd Bridge & Fitzgerald Ave Bridge: All the red zone houses were gone, demolished, leaving green & shrubby parkland from Avon River bank to green zoned housing about 100m-200m back from Avon River bank. All that was left was Avonside Tennis Club.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See CERA demolitions list
See City blueprint to get go-ahead (The Press / Stuff Co)
No comments:
Post a Comment