Friday, December 9, 2011

CERA Regime. Red Zone Ghosts, Swanns Rd, Avonside Dr

Swanns Rd, Avonside Dr red zone focus. Fri 09.12.11. Eight months before, 28 April, was the last time I'd trekked Avonside Dr, by Avon River, during the National State of Emergency. As the Feb 22 Killer Quake had raised Avon River bed, a stopbank was built along Avonside Dr to stop flooding. I'd trekked along the new stopbank & snapped pics of quake damaged houses. Most houses were inhabited then.


09.12.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake trashed, ghost shop, Swanns Rd / Stanmore Rd. The shop would be demolished

Eight months later, I trekked Swanns Rd & Avonside Dr to Bowie Pl, all within 3.5km of Leah's London St school, near Stanmore Rd. Swanns Rd, went off Stanmore Rd to Avon River & began about 500m from Leah's school gate. Stanmore Rd was the E border between Christchurch, quake trashed CBD & E quake trashed suburbs.


09.12.11. Quake trashed, steel mesh fence cordoned, ghost flats, awaiting demolition, Swanns Rd / Stanmore Rd. Mar 2013, the flats would still be awaiting demolition. 2021. New 2 storey flats had been built on site






Stanmore Rd / Swanns Rd: I parked my car by a steel mesh fence cordoned, ghost shop (later demolished). On the opp cnr, several quake trashed, 2 storey, brick, ghosts flats were steel mesh fence cordoned. The brick walls had many diagonal cracks, step-like, L shape cracks in the diagonals where mortar was loosened by quakes. The lane going to the flats still had roadside, grey liquefaction mud. The ghost flats were empty, tenants long gone. Grass verges were cut, but gardens were overgrown. Mar 2013, the ghost flats would still be fence cordoned awaiting demolition. 2021. New flats had been built on site.


09.12.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake trashed, ghost flats, Swanns Rd / Stanmore Rd. The flats would be demolished. 2021. New flats had been built on site







Since June, the Avon River horseshoe bend where I trekked was designated red zone by CERA. It would be too expensive to reinstate quake trashed land beside Avon River, so all home owners had to leave & accept 2 NZ National govt buyout offers, or battle EQC & insurers for equitable payouts, repairs or rebuilds for their quake trashed homes.

I confined my snapping to empty ghost houses, with overgrown gardens, grass, shrubs, flowers & weeds growing wild. Quake displaced people were gone. Along the riverside, I had that creepy feeling again when trekking amongst ghosts, like I was being watched. No one in sight.

I didn't snap houses where people still resided, cars in driveways, grass cut, curtains twitching. There were many houses along Swanns Rd & Avonside Dr where quake distraught people still lived.

Over the next year or so, after enough people had left red zone housing, after settling with NZ National govt's red zone offer, CERA planned to demolish houses in batches. What would become of the red zone along Avon River was anyone's guess? CERA minister Brownlee was mum.

Swanns Rd & Avonside Dr I trekked were worse than 8 months before: dusty roads, ghost houses, overgrown gardens, weedy, quake cracked driveways.


09.12.11. Quake trashed, ghost house, Swanns Rd







09.12.11. Quake trashed, ghost house, Swanns Rd / River Rd



Swanns Rd: I snapped several ghost houses. Swanns Rd Bridge was in bad condition, quake cracks on both sides of the bridge along Avon River banks. Bridge joins by spans & abutments were badly quake cracked, yet cars still drove over the bridge. Orange pumps on Avon River banks pumped sludge though black, plastic pipes. 2022. When I trekked that way again, visiting the Richmond community mushroom patch in the residential red zone by Avon River, the bridge concrete abutment crack, about 2m long & about 10cm wide in places, still had not been repaired, rusty rebars exposed to the elements.


09.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Quake trashed roads, ghost house, Swanns Rd / River Rd


09.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Orange pump, quake trashed roadside by Swanns Rd Bridge, Swanns Rd / River Rd

Swanns Rd / River Rd: An orange pump I'd seen 8 months before, in the middle of the cracked, lumpy road, still pumped sludge. On Avon River bank, Avonside Dr side, a group of NIWA, water & atmospheric research workers, in brown waders, took water samples.


09.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Quake trashed Avonside Dr by Swanns Rd Bridge


09.12.11. Quake damaged Swanns Rd Bridge, seen from Avonside Dr


09.12.11. Orange pump, Avon River bank by Swanns Rd Bridge, Avonside Dr

For months post Feb 22 Killer Quake, Avon River was an open sewer while Christchurch sewage system was fixed. Only recently had Council declared beaches & rivers safe for water sports again.

Avonside Dr: Quake holes & cracks were filled in, but the road surface was mainly shingled, with some tarseal, allowing remaining residents access to quake trashed homes. Quakemire still sludged cracked pavements & driveways.

Avonside Dr, near quake trashed Avonside Girls High School: I snapped several ghost houses, overgrown gardens. One ghost house was the same as months before, rubble by the front garden wall, quake stripped house wall, rooms exposed, blue tarp flapping in the wind.


09.12.11. WORKS END. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr, near Swanns Rd Bridge




Opp Swanns Rd Bridge, Avonside Dr ghost houses had overgrown gardens: long grass, weeds, shrubs & flowers growing wild. As in other quake trashed suburbs, blue, plastic water pipes undulated along pavements, buried in places by quakemire.


09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr, near Swanns Rd Bridge




09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr




Monckton Pl off Avonside Dr: I snapped ghost houses & grey quakemire still on pavements.


09.12.11. Liquefaction mud, quake trashed, red zone driveway, Monckton Pl




09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Monckton Pl




I trekked along the stopbank between Avon River & Avonside Dr. Since I'd last passed that way, the stopbank had hardened, with shingle on top & weeds growing on stopbank slopes.


09.12.11. Post Feb 22 quake, red zone stopbank, between Avon River & Avonside Dr


09.12.11. Red zone, Avonside Dr, post Feb 22 quake stopbank view, Canada geese in Avon River. River Rd on opp bank

Riverbanks were overgrown, not that Canada geese, black swans nor other waterfowl minded. Nature reclaimed its own. The riverbank was slumped, due to lateral spreading, with quake cracks hidden by grass. The tarseal footpath was quake cracked, lumpy & potholed. Grey mud on the footpath, showed tidal flooding by quake raised Avon River.


09.12.11. Blue, plastic, water pipe. Steel mesh fence cordon. Post quake, red zone, ghost houses, Avonside Dr


09.12.11. Post quake, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr





I trekked past Sept 4, Darfield Quake trashed, Medway St Footbridge over Avon River, joining Avonside Dr & River Rd. Post quakes, every time I passed the footbridge, the twisted span had sunk closer to the water. The footbridge was concrete block cordoned on both riverbanks. Early 2013, Medway St Footbridge would be deconstructed for heritage storage at Ferrymead. May 2022, a new Medway St Footbridge would be opened.


09.12.11. Sept 4, quake trashed, Medway St Footbridge over Avon River, between Avonside Dr & River Rd


09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr



09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone footpath by Avon River, Avonside Dr. River Rd on opp bank



09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr




09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr. Green, plastic sewage tank on pavement


09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr


Avonside Dr: Along Avon River, I saw several brown puddles roadside & riverside, as river water seeped through to housing. A couple of furniture removal trucks were parked roadside, home owners relocating.


09.12.11. Post quake, Avonside Dr view, Avon River footbridge, River Rd / Dallington Tce


09.12.11. Avon River flooding, quake trashed footpath. Avonside Dr stopbank right. Dallington Tce left



09.12.11. Quake trashed, Avon River bank bench & footpath. Post Feb 22 quake stopbank, removal van behind, Avonside Dr


Portaloos still lined overgrown, Avonside Dr pavements, showing residents were still in some houses. When I trekked past, hand sanitiser & crap pongs wafted out. Post Sept 4 Darfield Quake, imagine using a pavement portaloo for 15 months...


09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr


Things would get worse for residents when CERA demolishers moved in: dust; clanking, ripping machinery; trucks rumbling by.


09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr


Orange pumps I'd seen 8 months before in the middle of Avonside Dr were still pumping sludge. Diesel fumes & noise polluted the air. Plastic pipes, for pumped sludge, lined weedy roadsides. Blue, plastic, water pipes continued along cracked pavements, half buried in grey quakemire.


09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr


Avonside Dr: While trekking, I kept a wary eye out for quake tilted power poles & low hanging power lines. Several places en route, I could've jumped up & touched hanging power lines. Green stickers on red zone, ghost housing showed that power was cut.


09.12.11. Overgrown, post quake, red zone, house demolition site, Avonside Dr / Robson Ave. Dallington Tce on opp Avon River bank



09.12.11. Liquefaction mud, quake flooding, Avonside Dr / Robson Ave

Robson Ave to Morris St junctions: I snapped many ghost houses, overgrown gardens, ghost house after ghost house, 15 along one section, matrixed by a couple of lived in houses, lawns cut. On Robson Ave cnr, by a quake tilted, power pole, I snapped an overgrown demolition site, flowers growing in quake rubble.


09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr






09.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Orange pump, middle of red zone, Avonside Dr, nr Morris St junction


09.12.11. Quake trashed, tilted, red zone, concrete drain, Avonside Dr. Dallington Tce on opp Avon River bank. The drain would be demolished


On Avon River bank, at a quake raised, muddy river bend, two teenage boys sat on steps of a quaked concrete drain, tilt-raised about 1m above ground. On Dallington Tce opp riverbank, contractors repaired the road. The concrete drain would be demolished.


09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr






09.12.11. Quake trashed, overgrown, red zone driveway, Avonside Dr


09.12.11. Liquefaction mud, quake trashed pavement, Avonside Dr


09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr









Near Bowie Pl, a drain cleaning, CCTV truck flushed polluted water onto Avonside Dr. Fifteen months post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake, Avonside Dr residents were still in shit. Fungus & shit was below floor boards & fungus was growing on walls. Red zoners would soon have respiratory complaints, children would be sick.

Post quakes, I had an allergic reaction to windblown bacterial & fungal spores, from all the septic muck in the red zones. My nasal cavities congested in warm, dry, windy weather, nor'westers or nor'easters & the allergic reaction only eased when weather became moist again. Sometimes my nasal cavities were congested for days. Leah said my snoring had increased at night, as it was impossible to breath through my nose during those dry times. That had only happened post quakes, a different allergy to my usual spring, hay fevers. I dreaded to think of all the asbestos dust, silicon dust, chromium dust, copper dust & arsenic dust blown from demolition sites. Yet my urge to document Christchurch quake destruction would obsess me for the next 2 years.


09.12.11. Post quake, drain cleaning, CCTV truck, Avonside Dr.


09.12.11. Avonside Dr view, post quake, black swans, Avon River. Dallington Tce, post quake stopbank on opp bank


Bowie Pl: I stopped snapping. I'd seen enough red zone ghosts that sunny afternoon. Eight months before, I'd snapped abandoned, boarded flats. Grey quakemire was still there.


09.12.11. Post quake, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr





Over the past 15 months, I'd got used to seeing quake destruction & desolation. Avonside liquefaction prone area was shaken from First World to Third World in terrifying, muddy seconds. Considering all the water, mature trees, fecundity & imminent house demolitions, the area could be a beautiful part of the proposed city to sea, Avon River Park. A memorial to shattered, displaced lives & honouring those who'd lived there. Avon River Park petition forms for signatures had circulated for weeks.

Over the next couple of years, most of the red zone, ghost houses I snapped beside Swanns Rd & Avonside Dr would be demolished by CERA. 


09.12.11. Post Feb 22 quake, red zone stopbank, between Avonside Dr & Avon River, near Bowie Pl


09.12.11. Blue, plastic, water pipe. Post quake, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr, near Bowie Pl



09.12.11. Post quake, red zone, overgrown driveway, Avonside Dr, near Bowie Pl

*Trekked Swanns Rd, Avonside Dr. 152 snaps.

Coda:

Jan 2016. A teacher friend who lived in Dallington green zone near CERA's red zone said, "Although CERA has fenced off demolition sites along Avon River, people still dumped rubbish in the red zone. Positively, I enjoy picking fruit from red zone, fruit trees."

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

See NIWA water & atmospheric research.



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