Friday, January 13, 2012

Year 2 CERA. Red Zone Dust Bowl, New Brighton

New Brighton Dust Bowl focus. Sat 14.01.12. Hot, gusty afternoon. Dust bowl hell. I trekked a circuit of red zone, ghost roads: Wattle Dr, Willryan Ave, Terrelle St, Sandy Ave. Those roads were between Travis Rd, near Travis Wetland & New Brighton Rd, near Avon River. During the last 16 months, 10 000 quakes had liquefactioned the roads & trashed many houses.

As the hot nor'wester gusted, gritty, grey liquefaction silt postponed my desire for a Burwood trek. Never mind people still living in ghost houses by liquefactioned, ghosts roads. Passing cars caused dust clouds. Not a City Care water tanker, nor contractor water tanker in sight, to lay dust in New Brighton dust bowl.

Ground surface, annoying grey liquefaction mud & dust paradox was formed from different depths of liquefaction mud & different evaporation times, hence irritating, windblown dust. Dry, gritty liquefaction soil wasn't clean like beach sand, as there was no antibiotic sea salt. Ground surface, grey liquefaction mud & dust was a mix of ancient alluvial soil & suburban waste-water crap, from quake-trashed sewage pipes, water pipes & drains.

Over the last 16 quake months, the number of bacterial spores I'd imbibed from grey liquefaction mud & dust must've boosted my immune system. No ill effects so far. Pity red zoners who had to live with liquefaction mud & dust for months.

CERA Landcheck website, land status:

Willryan Ave: 89 properties, 5 red zone, 84 green zone. I only trekked the red zone section.
Terrelle St: 27 properties, all red zone.
Sandy Ave: 7 properties, 3 red zone, 4 green zone.
Wattle Dr: 50 properties, 26 red zone, 24 green zone.

Residential red zone land was too expensive / difficult to fix & property owners had to leave. Why were red zone homes built on swampland in the first place? In the eastern suburbs, there was much quake destroyed land & homes build on shifting sands. Pre quakes, I bet there many Council workers, surveyors, developers, architects, engineers, contractors & lawyers who gave inadequate warnings about liquefaction prone land throughout Christchurch.

Wattle Dr: I parked my car near ghost houses, sinking into mud, gardens overgrown. Near New Brighton Rd, most Wattle Dr houses were abandoned. Beyond Freeville School, the closer I trekked to Travis Rd, there were more green zone houses along Wattle Dr.


14.01.12. Liquefactioned Wattle Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm



Willryan Ave: Quake tilted, power poles & roadside, green portaloos. I passed more liquefactioned, ghost houses, passed a fallen WORKS END THANK YOU sign, passed a FOOTPATH CLOSED sign, to red zone Terrelle St.


14.01.12. Liquefactioned Wattle Dr / Willryan Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm


14.01.12. Portaloo & liquefactioned Willryan Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm


Terrelle St: Grey liquefaction muddy, dusty mess. Roadside portaloos & green, plastic sewage tanks. Ghost houses, gardens overgrown. House demolition site: there were 4 abandoned sofas amongst weeds & two huge, liquefaction boils. A yellow car was smothered by weeds in a front yard. Two unfriendly men scuttled in & out of their muddy, dusty gardens, suspicious of me. I'd be annoyed too, if I had to endure their strife.


14.01.12. Liquefactioned Terrelle St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm





















Sandy Ave: The road name indicated the terrain. Three ghost houses. Freeville School looked OK.


14.01.12. Abandoned house, Sandy Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm


Wattle Dr: I didn't bother trekking to Travis Rd, as I was sweaty & gritty with grey liquefaction dust. Towards Travis Rd, there was less liquefaction & less housing damage.


14.01.12. Quake collapsed garage, Wattle Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm

Wattle Dr / Sandy Ave junction: Grey, sandy sinkhole, cordoned by orange, plastic, road cones on the pavement, blocking entry to a liquefactioned driveway.


14.01.12. Liquefactioned Wattle Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm


Wattle Dr: I trekked back to my car, past red zone, ghost houses, some tilted into mud, gardens overgrown, pavements covered in grey silt. Grey sinkholes & deep mud in driveways & on pavements. I passed Atlantis St, which I'd trekked days prior, a big, grey sinkhole, cordoned by orange, plastic, road cones & a fence at the junction.


14.01.12. Liquefactioned Wattle Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm


Sun 15.01.12. 2.47am, M5.0 quake, 9km depth, 10km E of Christchurch (GeoNet). Rumbled by & woke us up.

*Trekked Wattle Dr, Willryan Ave, Terrelle St, Sandy Ave. 87 snaps.

Coda:

Near the end of 2012, the Ministry Of Education would cause strife by wanting to close & merge several Christchurch schools without consultation, MOE using quakes as the excuse. Freeville School would merge with North New Brighton School. Central New Brighton School would merge with South Brighton School, thus reducing local schools from 4 to 2, MOE more destructive than quakes. Merges would cause public protests. So much for CERA recovery.

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

4 comments:

  1. Wandering in belatedly to say my kids go to Freeville School and so I know these streets really well. It's so horrible seeing them like this and I feel for all the people I know who live in and with this :(

    On another note, the school looks okay but has had one unsafe building demolished already and will likely have another one too (the one you can see from Sandy Ave). On the plus side it's a great school and is still going strong despite the building problems, and with new ones replacing those we've lost :D

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    1. Thanks r. Good to hear the school's still going strong, despite setbacks. Hope it thrives after the rebuild.

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    2. This is all horribly ironic now. Freeville school is still going strong, still an excellent school providing an excellent education, but unfortunately the MoE have decreed it will be lost in a merger. Lots of grief in the area now.

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  2. Sad that Freeville School has to merge with North New Brighton School & that the MoE also merged Central New Brighton School with South Brighton School, thus reducing local schools from 4 to 2. The MoE was more destructive than the quakes.

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