Devastation: After CERA red zoned Bexley streets in Oct 2011 & after the 23.12.11 Xmas Quake Swarm, I wanted a closer look at red zoned Waitaki St, Mitcham Pl, Bexley Rd, Pages Rd, a circular trek. After the M6.3, 22 Feb 2011 Killer Quake, those roads & houses were trashed by liquefaction. Subsequent quakes messed them more.
Who checked Tonkin & Taylor geotech engineers' slow work? 1 000s of homeowners & business owners were forced to accept their land decisions by CERA!
There were anomalies like coastal Brooklands red zoned post Feb 22 Killer Quake & June 13 Quake, many liveable, unbroken houses, yet coastal Parklands, closer to town, was green zoned, massive liquefactions post Feb 22 & June 13 Quakes. Post 23.12.11 Xmas Quake Swarm: red zone Brooklands, no mud, green zone Parklands, muddy mess, again!
Zoning of Bexley & New Brighton streets I saw, according to CERA's Landcheck website:
Pages Rd: some red zone, some green zone.
Bexley Rd: some red zone, some green zone.
Waitaki St close to Avon River: red zone.
Mitcham Pl & side lanes very close to Avon River: red zone.
Pratt St: some red zone, some green zone.
Huge anomaly: CERA insisted on rebuilding red zone CBD, but displaced citizens from their homes in CERA's residential red zones. Usually the closer one went to a river, the more red zoning. Christchurch CBD, close to Avon River, massive damage, in a red zone cordon, public banned for 11 months so far, yet CBD land still wasn't zoned properly by CERA & Tonkin & Taylor. How did Tonkin & Taylor & CERA justify rebuilding red zone CBD on top of Christchurch Fault, on swampland, after CBD was as badly liquefactioned as many red zoned, riverside suburbs?
Adjacent red zone / green zone homes were anomalous, causing home owner pain. Green zone home owners had to fix their quake broken properties, having lost equity due to quakes. Red zone home owners next door could take NZ National govt and / or insurance payouts, leave & start afresh. Green zoners in the same muddy streets as red zoners had to stay.
Tonkin & Taylor, NZ National govt / CERA appointed geotech engineers: White zone & orange zone properties still waited slow land reports after many months!
Sun 01.01.12. New Years Day, the Xmas Quake Swarm continued in Pegasus Bay, GeoNet recording 3 quakes: M3.3; M3.5; M4.0.
Mon Jan 2. GeoNet recorded 19 quakes: M5.1; M4.3; M3.5; M3.8; M5.5; M4.2; M4.1; M4.1; M3.9; M3.8; M4.1; M3.7; M3.7; M3.9; M3.3; M3.5; M3.6; M4.8; M3.8. Tues Jan 3, The Press reported 21 quakes on Monday. Take your pick.
I didn't feel most of the Monday quakes, Pegasus Bay epicentres E, or NE of Christchurch, but felt some of the M4-5s. Some I didn't feel, depending where I was. If I was trekking, or driving my car, I rarely felt M4 quakes. If I was seated at home I felt them, as a slight rumbling or trembling. Rattly, grumbling, M5s yes!
Tues 03.01.12. Parked, Pages Rd / Waitaki St. Pages Rd from Pages Rd Bridge over Avon River to Anzac Dr was disintegrating in the red zone.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Pages Rd / Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned house, Pages Rd / Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Bexley degradation was worse than what I saw post June 13 Quake. Quakemire was left lying around, little done by Council, or remaining home owners, to keep up pre-quake, Garden City hype. So far CERA had condemned 6 500 Canterbury, red zone houses to demolishers.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned house, Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefaction mud, Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Waitaki St: Most Bexley, broken houses I saw that Tuesday morning were abandoned: muddy, overgrown gardens, pavements & verges. A few houses, still inhabited. A year ago, before serial quake flooding & liquefaction, the area was a bustling community.
Quake damage was similar to that I'd seen in other Christchurch suburbs: muddy, cracked roads & driveways; blue, plastic, water pipes along muddy pavements, part buried in mud; brown sewage in road puddles; abandoned furniture in gardens & streets; loose roof tarps; orange, plastic, road cones, scattered everywhere; leaning power poles; power lines hanging; skewed letterboxes & plastic sewage tanks; tilted ghost houses & garages sinking into mud. Council black rubbish bins scattered everywhere, red, yellow, green lids.
Meanwhile mayor Parker jabbered on TV that the Feb 22 Killer Quake was the energy equivalent of 80 Hiroshima bombs... That tourists were coming to Christchurch, thrilled to experience aftershocks... Parker down-played quake survivor fears of the ongoing Pegasus Bay quake swarm & tsunami threat. During the 23.12.11 Xmas Quake Swarm, while Parker was holidaying in Taupo, I was in fear of my life, 4 times, in Peterborough St Council library. The Press / Stuff Co irate comments, showed public opinion was turning against Parker & his Council.
As for bombs & the 5 XL quakes we'd endured over the last 15 months, a helluva lot of bombs would be needed to cause the damage done by quakes in a few seconds. 2022-24. Ukraine War: Bomb damage seen on TV was minor compared to quake damage we'd experienced in Christchurch. Ditto 2023-24 Gaza War.
03.01.12. Serial quake trashed house, Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Waitaki St: Junk-mailer dodged quakemire, passing ghost houses, mailing junk in living letterboxes.
03.01.12. Serial quake damaged housing, Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Mitcham Pl: Muddy. Greeted two old ladies, walking their dogs. Most of Mitcham Pl & side lanes was abandoned. At the end of Mitcham Pl, I stood on Avon River stopbank, raised after the Feb 22 Killer Quake. Subsequent quakes slumped the stopbank Mitcham Pl side & Avon River side, lengthy cracks, more than, a metre deep. Slumping, due to lateral spreading.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Mitcham Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Sopley Ln, off Mitcham Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quake damaged, Avon River stopbank, end of Mitcham Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned house, Mitcham Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Fordingbridge Ln, off Mitcham Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Mitcham Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Waitaki St: Trekked along more muddy mayhem to Bexley Rd junction.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactiond house, Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quake tilted, green, plastic, sewage tank, Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned house, Waitaki St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Waitaki St / Bexley Rd junction: Tilted house I'd seen post June 13 Quake was gone, demolished. Rest of the junction, grey muddy mess: ghost houses; piles of grey quakemire; flood puddles with sewage; grey quakemire everywhere; blue water pipe, drowned in sewage; scattered, orange, plastic, road cones; yellow, roadside pump.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Bexley Rd view to Avon River stopbank. Seen from Bexley Rd / Waitaki St, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Bexley Rd: Trekked quakemire, past ghost houses, overgrown gardens & verges to John Hinton Reserve on Avon River bank. When would Council & CERA cut all that long grass & fuel-for-fire shrubbery?
Near Avon River, raised stopbank stood several big, white, plastic bags, filled with dry, concrete mix, ready for Avon River bank breaching.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Bexley Rd, near Avon River, 23.12.11 quake swarm
End of Bexley Rd, by John Hinton Reserve: On Avon River stopbank, as usual I saw Bexley Rd was below Avon River level.
03.01.12. Avon River stopbank view, liquefactioned Bexley Rd, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. White, plastic bags, filled with dry, concrete mix, ready for Avon River bank breaching, Bexley Rd, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Returned along Bexley Rd, trekking its grey muddy length, past Waitaki St junction, past ghost houses & overgrown gardens to Pages Rd.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Bexley Rd, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Bexley Rd / Pages Rd: Orion utility ghost, sunk more into quakemire than I'd seen post June 13 Quake. Liquefaction flooding water mark, just below a door handle. Utility bldg would be demolished.
03.01.12. Bexley Rd / Pages Rd, view to Anzac Dr, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Pages Rd view, serial quakes, liquefactioned Bexley Rd, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, low hanging power lines, liquefactioned Bexley Rd, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Orion substation, Bexley Rd / Pages Rd, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Pages Rd: Ghost houses, pavements, mired in more grey quakemire. Council wasn't bothering to dig out red zoned houses anymore. CERA demolishers waited.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefactioned Pages Rd view to Pages Rd Bridge, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefaction trashed house, Pages Rd, between Bexley Rd & Waitaki St, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefaction trashed house, Pages Rd / Waitaki St, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Abandoned furniture, serial quakes, liquefactioned house, Pages Rd / Waitaki St, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Drove across damaged Pages Rd Bridge, stopping along New Brighton Rd by Pratt St, as I wanted to snap red zone housing there.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefaction trashed, Pratt St / New Brighton Rd. Avon River stopbank beyond, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: New Brighton Rd / Pratt St junction: Huge cracks & slumping on the post Feb 22 Killer Quake raised stopbank, on Avon River bank. Engineers & workmen had covered a Pratt St drain pipe with stopbank shingle! Result: Quake sinkhole over the drain outlet, broken drain pipe & quake slumping, riverside. Slumping, due to lateral spreading.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, cracked & slumped Avon River stopbank, 23.12.11 quake swarm. New Brighton Rd left. Avon River & Pages Rd Bridge right
03.01.12. Serial quakes, cracked, Avon River stopbank, 23.12.11 quakes swarm. New Brighton Rd right
03.01.12. New Brighton Rd, stopbank view, Avon River & serial quakes, raised stopbank, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Memorial tree, Avon Riverbank, black marble, memorial plaque:
PLANTED BY THE PUPILS OF
NEW BRIGHTON DISTRICT SCHOOL
TO COMMEMORATE THE MARRIAGE OF
KING GEORGE V
TO
QUEEN MARY
1911
03.01.12. Memorial plaque, King George V marriage to Queen Mary 1911, Avon River stopbank, New Brighton Rd, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Memorial trees & memorial plaques in Christchurch (lots in Hagley Park & CBD) lasted longer than quaked housing, infrastructure, roads, river stopbanks.
Devastation: Pratt St / New Brighton Rd: Trashed ghost houses, grey liquefactioned, overgrown gardens.
03.01.12. Serial quakes, trashed house, Pratt St / New Brighton Rd, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Devastation: Pratt St: Trashed. Sewage stench & messy road surface from broken, leaky sewage pipes. Grey quakemire on road, pavements, gardens. Road, shingle repaired, bad condition. Blue water pipes on pavements. Road workers' signs, equipment, scattered. Tilted, ghost houses, garages, overgrown gardens. Some houses, still inhabited.
03.01.12. Liquefactioned pavement, Pratt St, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Sewage leak across liquefaction trashed, Pratt St, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Serial quakes, liquefaction damaged house, Pratt St, 23.12.11 quake swarm
03.01.12. Blue, plastic, water pipe, liquefaction damaged Pratt St, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Pratt St / Keyes Rd: ANNABELS EDUCARE bldg, about 100 metres from sewage leaking across Pratt St.
03.01.12. Signs, Pratt St / Keyes Rd, 23.12.11 quake swarm
Pratt St end: Camera battery expired. I would see Baker St & Sinclair St another day.
*Trekked Pages Rd, Waitaki St, Mitcham Pl, Bexley Rd, New Brighton Rd, Pratt St. 219 snaps.
Coda:
Nov 2013. Two years later, many of the liquefactioned, red zone houses I'd seen had been demolished by CERA.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Tonkin and Taylor.
Responded to an email inquiring about Bexley homeowners.
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