Christ Church Cathedral: Ex politician & wannabe Christchurch mayor Anderton commissioned structural engineers Stefano Pampanin, Robert Davey & Adam Thornton to produce a Save the Cathedral scheme, recommending mine-prop methods to prop up Christchurch Cathedral during restoration. Anderton & Heritage-hailers said nothing about who would pay for their folly.
Anderton & Heritage-hailers ignored the fact that many dangerous Christchurch churches were already demolished: Sydenham Heritage Church, Brougham St (in Anderton's electorate); St Johns Anglican (Cardboard Cathedral rebuild) Latimer Sq; Durham St Methodist (three deaths, modern rebuild); St Lukes Anglican, Manchester St; Cambridge Tce Baptist (modern rebuild); Christchurch Basilica, Barbadoes St (partial deconstruction, then 2019 demolition); St Pauls Trinity Pacific Presbyterian, Madras St; St Marys Anglican, Church Ln (modern rebuild); Avonside Trinity Anglican, Lychgate Cl (modern rebuild); St Athanasios Coptic, Edgeware Rd...
Where were Anderton & his Heritage-hailers when those churches were demolished? If all those churches mostly built on Avon River swampland, were destroyed, how did Heritage-hailers think ruined Christ Church Cathedral built on Avon River swampland could survive restoration / rebuild and future earthquakes? And what astronomical costs? Then there were daily eyesore-ruins, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned, boarded, weedy reminders of quakes: Knox Presbyterian (restored) Bealey Ave; Chinese Methodist, Papanui Rd (demolished / modern rebuild)...
There wasn't a peep from Anderton & Heritage-hailers about the many Cantabrians forced to live in squalor due to slow EQC, slow insurers & slow CERA. Some survivors had to beg from Salvation Army & other charities.
Royal Commission of Inquiry: CTV multi-storey collapse: Structural engineers Clark Hyland & Ashley Smith blamed design faults for CTV collapse. They passed-the-buck like in other Commission of Inquiry hearings. They opined that demolishers trashing next door Les Mills gym with a non-consented wrecker-ball did not affect CTV, despite complaints by CTV workers that CTV shook due to wrecker-ball thumpings. Never mind that since the 4 September 2010 Quake demolisher machines were thumping & shaking buildings & roads all over Christchurch & nearby towns.
2026: Fifteen years after the CTV collapse, Still no-one was held accountable for the collapse! Imagine lying in pitch-dark trapped by CTV rubble, your cell-phone expired, while hearing rescue-workers dithering when CTV smoke & fire approached your crushed body...
Tuesday 10.07.12, 11.32pm, M4.5 quake, 11km depth, 10km southwest of Christchurch (GeoNet). Rumbled by, shaking our house, rattling windows.
Wednesday 11.07.12. Post Xmas Quake Swarm 2011, I'd trekked some New Brighton roads, so I returned for a red-zone circuit-trek along Waygreen Ave, Atlantis St, Wattle Dr, New Brighton Rd, sunk by quakes, to see ruined-houses & swamp plant succession near Avon River which was raised by quakes. I would again wade through sewage-flooded quakemire. I would test my new Samsung, digital camera, 10x zoom, as weeks before my other Samsung digital-camera died in New Brighton by Avon River. So far since the 4 September 2010 Darfield Quake, I'd worn out three digital-cameras & three pairs of jandals.
Leah's school had suffered liquefactions & diggings out of quakemire during the 22 February 2011 Quake & the 13 June 2011 Quake & had worn out three teachers who left the school. Leah had already on-the-job trained two Pom replacement teachers. Never mind daily teaching stresses & dealing with frightened kids during aftershocks & heavy traffic shaking the London St school. After leeching Leah's expertise, those Pom teachers left for better pay elsewhere. Adding to continuous quake-stressors, breadwinner Leah was overworked (long hours) & underpaid. Burnout imminent!
New Brighton Rd: Council had widened Avon River stopbank to surround the power-poles opposite Waygreen Ave & beyond to upstream Anzac Bridge. I stood on the stopbank viewing distant Port Hills & watched the rising-tide on Avon River. New Brighton Rd was below high-tide level, but flooding was stopped by the stopbank. I snapped Anzac Bridge & downstream Wainoni Rd Bridge.
11.07.12. Liquefactioned, abandoned house, Waygreen Ave
The squalid roads I trekked had no repairs done, the same ruination I'd seen months before: potholed, rutted, muddy, scummy gutters, sewage-muddy-footpaths, swamp reeds growing in overgrown muddy-gardens.
Waygreen Ave: I saw only one green portaloo, showing most red-zoners had left.
11.07.12. Red stickered, liquefactioned, abandoned house. Swamp reeds growing in muddy garden, Waygreen Ave
Blue-plastic-water-pipes & green-plastic-sewage-tanks remained on liquefactioned-footpaths. Ruined-houses remained. I saw several muddy, CERA demolition-sites.
Waygreen Ave & Atlantis St: Deserted, muddy, flooded wasteland reverting to Avon River swampland. Lquefactioned-ruins & destroyed streets showed the stupidity of building houses & roads on swampland.
11.07.12. Liquefactioned house, CERA demolition site, Waygreen Ave
11.07.12. Plastic rubbish bin, quake junk. Liquefactioned, abandoned house, sewage-muddy puddle, Waygreen Ave
11.07.12. Flooding. Green portaloo, liquefaction cleared, Waygreen Ave. Port Hills backdrop
11.07.12. Liquefactioned, abandoned house, Waygreen Ave
11.07.12. Quake junk, Waygreen Ave
11.07.12. Liquefactioned houses, CERA demolition site, Waygreen Ave
11.07.12. Liquefactioned, abandoned house, Waygreen Ave
Atlantis St corner: Kate Sheppard Retirement Village's back-gate was locked, a green-skip behind the gate. In the Village, I saw ruined-houses, one was steel-mesh-fence-cordoned.
11.07.12. Swamp reeds on liquefactioned pavement, Waygreen Ave / Atlantis St
11.07.12. Liquefactioned, abandoned house, swamp reeds growing in garden, Atlantis St
11.07.12. Post quakes, green, plastic, sewage tank, Atlantis St
11.07.12. Locked back gate, green skip, liquefactioned, abandoned, Kate Sheppard Retirement Village, Atlantis St
11.07.12. Steel mesh fence cordoned, liquefactioned, abandoned house, Atlantis St
11.07.12. Quake cracked, concrete, garden wall, Atlantis St
11.07.12. Plastic rubbish bins. Quake tilted power poles. Liquefaction cleared Atlantis St / Wattle Dr
Atlantis St / Wattle Dr : CERA had demolished three houses there. Looking towards Avon River, I saw Wattle Dr was still liquefactioned with sunken, tilted ruined-houses. A young man by his gate stood glaring at me. "Swamp reeds are taking over here," I said, "your road's reverting to swampland." He glared more, while I passed, pitying him slumming in his sewage-muddy-quakemire.
11.07.12. Blue, plastic, water pipe on pavement. Liquefactioned, CERA house demolition site, Atlantis St / Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Quake junk, liquefactioned, CERA house demolition site, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Liquefactioned, abandoned house, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Liquefactioned, abandoned garage, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Boarded, wood braced wall, liquefactioned, abandoned house, Wattle Dr. Swamp reeds growing in garden
11.07.12. Blue, plastic, water pipe buried in liquefaction mud, abandoned house, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Letter box, concrete wall buried in liquefaction mud, by blue, plastic, water pipe, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Blue, plastic, water pipe before quake abandoned house, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Liquefactioned, abandoned house, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Blue, plastic, water pipe. Quake tilted power pole. Swamp reeds in garden, liquefactioned, abandoned house, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Liquefactioned, abandoned garage, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Blue, plastic, water pipe, plastic rubbish bins, liquefaction cleared Wattle Dr. Port Hills backdrop
11.07.12. Liquefactioned, abandoned house, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Quake trashed, iron gate, void under liquefactioned, concrete driveway. Abandoned house, Wattle Dr
11.07.12. Blue, plastic, water pipe. Liquefactioned, abandoned house, Wattle Dr
Wattle Dr: A red-zoner's sewage-muddy-graffiti on a garage-door:
FUCK
OFF
SHIT OWN
THIS
On all three roads I trekked, swamp-reeds grew in unkempt gardens. Reeds! Why were houses built on Avon River swampland?
11.07.12. Swamp reeds in garden, liquefactioned, abandoned house, Wattle Dr
*Trekked Waygreen Ave, Atlantis St, Wattle Dr. 71 images.
Coda:
By January 2014, many of the red-zone ruined-houses along Waygreen Ave, Atlantis St, Wattle Dr would be demolished by CERA. All that was left: some ruined-houses & weedy demolition-sites & more swamp-reeds. There was no talk by CERA of rehousing its residential red-zone swamplands. Yet CERA after many CBD-demolitions would wet-dream its Blueprint-precincts on red-zone-CBD swampland, which would cost millions of dollars.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See CTV: Current quake standard may be short - engineer (The Press / Stuff Co).
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