Friday, July 13, 2012

Year 2 CERA. Quake Safety, Stonehaven, Moncks Bay Slippery Slopes

Stonehaven, Moncks Bay slippery slopes focus. Sat 14.07.12. Email to a USA Florida mate: "They keep rolling on, shallow, crustal quakes, (5-20km deep) unlike anywhere else in the world, with potent accelerations. We can't anticipate or predict quakes & when they hit, we wonder: 'Is this a big one again? Do we dive under a table, or run for the door?' Relief when it's over, once more. We've endured 10 000+ quakes in the last couple of years.

M2-3, rarely noticed, but M4 & above make us alert. We're good at estimating quake Mags, then checking on GeoNet website. For the last couple of years in Christchurch we watch out for quake attacks. Seismologists will have to rewrite quake theory after Christchurch settles down.

03.07.12, Taranaki district (N Island) had a M7 quake, 230km deep, offshore, on a plate fault. Nearby Wellingtonians crapped themselves, little damage, but it felt like a M4 to me in Christchurch.

Christchurch authorities are demolishing crap bldgs, old & new, so eventually Christchurch will be one of the safest seismic zones in the world to live in, hopefully. Costs billions, including quake strengthened rebuild. CBD is still locked down in a military, red zone cordon, while high rise demolitions continue. Has enabled suburbs to boom, businesses relocated from the CBD.

We shrug off fear & sleep through many night quakes now. Some people can't stand it anymore & leave for 'safer' towns & cities."

Post 22.02.11 Killer Quake, after more than a year of land zonings, CERA recently rezoned Port Hills white zone properties to red or green zones. CERA minister Brownlee's excuse for slow Port Hills zonings was the difficulties of geotech experts ascertaining hill slide, rock fall or cliff fall dangers. Anyone could see living on a steep hillside, under a cliff, or on a cliff top was dangerous.


14.07.12. Quake damaged, boarded house, Port Hills Rd



14.07.12. Port Hills Rd view, quake rock fall hazard housing

166 Port Hills properties were still white zoned, in limbo, to be rezoned by October 2012. To see hillside dwellings, I drove to white zoned, Stonehaven Tce & Lucas Ln, Hillsborough, below slippery cliffs. I'd already trekked a bit of Hillsborough post 22.02.11 Killer Quake, on the flats.


14.07.12. Port Hills Rd / Alderson Ave


"Tce" rang alarms, as Terrace housing I'd seen in quaked Christchurch were either quake-stuffed hillside housing, or quake-stuffed riverside housing. I parked my car on Port Hills Rd by boarded houses & trekked past an Alderson Ave cnr boast:

             Millennium 2000
   Communities Christchurch Street
           and Garden Awards
This plaque commemorates the special
     efforts made by the residents of
 Alderson Avenue which was selected
       as the most attractive street
        within the boundary of the
          Spreydon / Heathcote
            Community Board


14.07.12. Millennium 2000, Garden Awards board, Port Hills Rd / Alderson Ave


14.07.12. Quake damaged roof, Alderson Ave


14.07.12. Quake damaged, boarded house, Alderson Ave


14.07.12. Alderson Ave view, quake rock fall hazard housing



Alderson Ave: Housing had crept up Port Hills. On my right Lucas Ln houses were quake damaged below loess cliffs. Alderson Ave veered left uphill as Stonehaven Tce which was also quake damaged. Above houses at Lucas Ln & Stonehaven Tce there was a mix of gullies, rocky bluffs & thick vegetation. Below Stonehaven Tce houses were slippery loess cliffs, mostly covered in vegetation. There were also houses below Stonehaven Tce loess cliffs on my left. A development mess!


14.07.12. Alderson Ave view, quake rock fall hazard housing



14.07.12. Alderson Ave view, quake loess slip hazard & rock fall hazard housing




Stonehaven Tce: Council planning stupidity: Below stony gullies, bluffs & a reservoir, new, housing spotted the hillside, vegetation gaps between houses. Stonehaven Tce had retaining walls above & below the road. Stonehaven houses were sandwiched between rocky bluffs above & loess cliffs below. New houses were threatened by rock fall above the road & new houses were threatened by loess slip below the road. Council was dumb consenting building on top of a cliff, or below a cliff.



14.07.12. Quake damaged house below loess cliff, Alderson Ave. Quake rock fall hazard housing above






Adding to the slippery slope, a concrete drain covered in metal grilles, was at the end of a gully by Aldersons Reserve & Lucas Ln, where the drain went underground down Alderson Ave.

  

14.07.12. Quake trashed house below slippery loess cliff, Lucas Ln


















14.07.12. Quake trashed house below slippery loess cliff, Lucas Ln











 


14.07.12. Alderson Ave view, quake trashed housing below slippery loess cliff, Lucas Ln



14.07.12. Drain, Aldersons Reserve, Alderson Ave


14.07.12. Alderson Ave view, Aldersons Reserve, drain & drain ditch, above Lucas Ln, quake trashed housing



Aldersons Reserve: A gum grove sucked up gully water, some gums chopped down. Below gums were creamy loess lumps, which had bounced a quake-distance from loess cliff collapse. Above the reserve, geotech experts had sprayed & chopped out vegetation, showing several huge cracks: A fault line? I didn't venture up the cracks, as I feared a quake would vanish me.


14.07.12. Alderson Ave housing in danger of quake rock fall & loess slip








14.07.12. Quake cracked curb & road, Alderson Ave

Cracks went uphill & were about 3m wide & deep in places, widening as they went uphill to an old farm property. Further up the cracks geotech experts had placed pink-tipped, wooden stakes in cleared ground, like hedgehog bristles, to check hillside slip & loess collapse, above Lucas Ln.


14.07.12. Loess clods flung from loess cliff by quakes, Aldersons Reserve


14.07.12. Aldersons Reserve, quake loess slip hazard above Lucas Ln








14.07.12. Quake rock fall hazard & gully drainage hazard above Alderson Ave & Lucas Ln




A mess! Dangers of flooding, rock fall, bluff collapse, loess cliff collapse & loess slip, all above Lucas Ln & Stonehaven Tce. Scandalous that Council planners, consenters, surveyors, architects, engineers, developers, builders had gone ahead with housing development on steep hillsides. Like Seabreeze Cl, Bexley swampland development, Stonehaven hillside development should never have been consented.

Port Hills houses with million dollar views, doomed to red zoning, meant ratepayers would be forced by CERA to share payouts to Port Hills red zoners. CERA's dealing with Council meant extortion of $100 million from ratepayers to punish Council planning stupidity & pay some ratepayers for building / buying / repairing dangerous Port Hills properties. (3News). Rationale for that extortion was that Council was responsible for ameliorating Port Hills rock fall hazards on Council land above housing developments. That didn't benefit red zoners on the flats, with their earlier red zoning, but was belatedly decreed by CERA to benefit Port Hills red zoners.

Lucas Ln: A closer look by Aldersons Reserve: Several boarded, tarped, ghost houses, protected from rock fall & loess fall by shipping containers. While I snapped, a woman stopped her car, demanding: "Are you just taking a look?" Affirmative.

Aldersons Ave: A sharp, uphill turn, by a farm gate & a 3 pronged gum tree, the road became Stonehaven Tce: Metal STONEHAVEN lettering on a stone wall announced entry to the new uphill development. Rocky bluffs loomed above Stonehaven development.


14.07.12. Housing in danger of quake rock fall, Stonehaven Tce




14.07.12. Post quake, road repairs to quake cracked / slipped roadside, Stonehaven Tce


14.07.12. Quake cracked, part repaired, roadside & curb, Stonehaven Tce



14.07.12. Quake damaged, retaining wall, slipping away from quake slipped, Stonehaven Tce







14.07.12. Quake damaged pavement, fence & gate slipping downhill, Stonehaven Tce


Stonehaven Tce: Housing was in danger of rock fall from above & slipping downhill, as some houses were built on loess below the road. All along the road, downhill side, cracked concrete curbs & repaired road cracks showed where quakes had already caused slippage.


14.07.12. Concrete retaining wall, quake rock fall hazard above, Stonehaven Tce


14.07.12. Post quake repairs to quake slipped pavement & roadside, Stonehaven Tce




14.07.12. Stonehaven Tce, loess cliff house, post quake view, Glenelg Spur & Hillsborough



14.07.12. Stonehaven Tce, loess cliff house, post quake view, Glenelg Spur, Hillsborough & Opawa



14.07.12 Post quake repairs to slipped roadside & pavement, Stonehaven Tce




14.07.12. Concrete retaining wall below housing, quake rock fall hazard above, Stonehaven Tce


14.07.12. House retaining wall, in danger of quake collapse, above Stronsay Ln, off Stonehaven Tce





14.07.12. Post quake repairs to quake slipped, retaining wall, Stronsay Ln


14.07.12. Stronsay Ln, quake cracked, concrete curb & loess cliff view, Hillsborough & Opawa






14.07.12. Loess cliff, slip hazard & quake rock fall hazard by new housing, Stronsay Ln


14.07.12. Loess cliff lot, quake loess slip hazard, Stronsay Ln



14.07.12. Post quake, Stronsay Ln view, Glenelg Spur & Port Hills Rd




14.07.12. Stronsay Ln view, quake trashed, red zone, abandoned, Christchurch CBD

 
Retaining walls had separated from the road in a slow slide. Never mind housing damages. One house sported an architect's board in a window. Housing development & real estate boards hung hopefully on roadside fences too:

Builders & Developers
Up to 100%
LAND & CONSTRUCTION FINANCE
AVAILABLE ON THIS SITE


14.07.12. Developers sign, quake rock fall hazard hillside, Stronsay Ln



14.07.12. Quake damaged house on quake rock fall hazard hillside, Stronsay Ln









14.07.12. Post quake, Stronsay Ln view, Glenelg Spur


14.07.12. Post quake, Stronsay Ln view, Opawa


14.07.12. Quake damaged, abandoned house, Stronsay Ln





14.07.12. Quake slipping house, loess cliff top, Stronsay Ln


14.07.12. Void under quake slipping house, loess cliff top, Stronsay Ln




14.07.12. Bare loess ground, quake slipping house, loess cliff top, Stronsay Ln


There were empty lots between Stonehaven houses. Below the road in empty lots, I saw bare loess. Some ghost houses, others occupied. One house had a huge void below concrete stairs. The black void extended below the hillside house. The new house had no garden. Herbicide killed vegetation exposed loess soil on the property.

Stronsay Ln fork, downhill off Stonehaven Tce: I trekked to the end of Stronsay Ln, past concrete, cracked retaining walls & builders' rubbish, stacked roadside, past overgrown lots, the reservoir looming above. At Stronsay Ln end, rock fall boulders perched on top of a rock-smashed, retaining wall.


14.07.12. Quake crack between retaining wall & pavement, Stronsay Ln


14.07.12. Real estate sign, quake cracked road & retaining wall, Stronsay Ln




14.07.12. House in danger of quake rock fall, Stronsay Ln. See rocks secured by steel cables






14.07.12. Builders rubbish, Stronsay Ln end



 

14.07.12. Bare lots, loess cliff top, Stronsay Ln end



14.07.12. Concrete retaining wall, Stronsay Ln end


14.07.12. Quake rock fall damage, concrete retaining wall, Stronsay Ln end

Below the reservoir, bluff rocks above the last Stronsay Ln house were strapped with steel cables, stopping rock fall.

There were lovely views over Hillsborough, Opawa & Glenelg Spur housing, towards the hazy CBD. My 10x zoom camera took good pics of red zone, ghost CBD, about 10km away, still NZDF cordoned, 17 months post 22.02.11 Killer Quake. Demolition cranes loomed above ghost high rises. You wouldn't catch me buying a house anywhere near Stonehaven in Hillsborough.

*Trekked Port Hills Rd, Alderson Ave, Lucas Ln, Stonehaven Tce, Stronsay Ln, McCormacks Bay Causeway, Cliff St, Emily Hts. 182 images.

Sun 22.07.12. I drove to Moncks Bay, as I wanted to hear testing of the new tsunami warning system, built post quakes: sirens on top of power poles along the coast. Over the last week, I'd seen digital road signs by QE11 Park & by McCormacks Bay Causeway informing residents about testing of new tsunami warning sirens at 11am, Sun 22.07.12. A first for Christchurch.


22.07.12. Tsunami siren testing, digital road sign, McCormacks Bay Causeway


While Leah & I waited for the siren, I checked out quake damaged Cliff St & Emily Hts by Moncks Bay. Several ghost houses along Cliff St, a house demolition site near the end. The end house, built on red volcanic rock, was horizontally cracked at window height. The rock on which the house was built was cracked vertically & horizontally. Another boarded, cliff-side house had a red rock in its driveway.


22.07.12. Quake damaged garden wall, Cliff St


22.07.12. Quake damaged housing, Cliff St 


22.07.12. Quake damaged housing & house demolition site right, Cliff St


22.07.12. Shipping container cordon / rock fall barrier. Quake damaged house, loess hillside, Cliff St


22.07.12. Quake rock fall on driveway below loess cliff, Cliff St


22.07.12. Quake trashed house on volcanic rock, Cliff St / Emily Hts











22.07.12. Quake split, volcanic rock, Emily Hts



Emily Hts: Another pre quake, housing development, not as far gone as Stonehaven, Hillsborough, but also built on a slippery slope of loose loess & volcanic rock.


22.07.12. Wooden retaining wall, quake damaged, part repaired roadside, Emily Hts. Moncks Bay, Southshore spit beyond


Emily Hts zig-zagged up the hillside past wooden retaining walls, to the top where another house was built. So far no other pre-quake houses were built on Emily Hts. The road was trashed, roadside cracks, where the hillside was slipping due to quakes. Ghost houses above & below Emily Hts were tarped & boarded.


22.07.12. Quake trashed, part repaired roadside, Emily Hts. Loess cliffs beyond



Lovely views of Pegasus Bay, Moncks Bay, Avon / Heathcote Estuary mouth, Southshore spit, quake stunted Shag Rock & shipping-container-protected Clifton cnr. But lethal quake conditions.
 

22.07.12. Cliff St view, quake trashed Emily Hts development. Houses below & above loose, loess cliffs



Over the last week I'd seen new ads touting virtues of bldg repair businesses, wanting to cash in on post quake repairs & rebuilds. An ad on the back of a ute listed all repairs the contractor would do. Top of the list: EARTHQUAKE REPAIRS.

Metropol BUY BUILD INVEST, Issue 11, July 2012 periodical had many repair / rebuild ads. One ad:

"STAKE CONSULTING LTD...

GROUND PENETRATING RADAR (GPR) [For checking quake voids below bldgs].
 Do you think you have underlying problems with your concrete floor?...

SLAB JACKING
Solution and repair for lifting driveways, paths and floors.
Filling of voids below concrete slabs.

CONCRETE CRACK REPAIRS
Don't allow water ingress through your concrete cracks this winter.
Epoxy Pressure Injection..."

Post quakes, I'd seen many tilt slab bldgs with quake cracked walls, epoxy glued. Soon EQC would be castigated for shoddy repairs, like faulty jack & pack of pile foundations. Given quake damages & shoddy EQC repairs, I wouldn't buy any pre-quake house in Christchurch.

As for the tsunami warning siren, at 85db it wasn't loud enough. Parked at Beachville Reserve by Avon / Heathcote Estuary, Leah heard the siren faintly in our car. As I wore a hearing aid, I had to get out of the car & hardly heard the siren. Council needed to increase siren volume, or $550 000 would be wasted. 

Luke didn't even hear the siren in a South New Brighton house, near South New Brighton School. Why did Council spend half a million+ dollars on a siren system for Pacific regional quakes & ignore Pegasus Bay quakes? No tsunami danger from Pegasus Bay Fault huh?

Coda:

Wed 31.10.12, CERA press release, Brownlee: "All 190 000 properties in greater Christchurch now have a zoning...

The vast majority of the over 7 860 property owners in the residential red zone have already chosen a buyout option and are in the process of selling their properties to the Crown... "

The residential red zone buyout was a NZ National govt land-grab of riverside properties & hillside properties. Later on NZ National govt would land-grab red zone CBD properties for its CERA Blueprint CBD. Geotech engineering firm, Tonkin & Taylor did the land zoning. Then NZ National govt / CERA, land-grabbed properties. Who checked Tonkin & Taylor?

Finalizing zoning of residential properties in Christchurch, the final 8 Lucas Ln properties were green zoned! But Lucas Ln housing was stuffed! CERA & Council would remove landslip material above Lucas Ln housing. CERA & Council would share the cost of loess removal & securing the slippery slope. Why did Council consent housing development below slippery loess cliffs in the first place?

By Jan 2014 the slippery, loess slope above Lucas Ln would be secured.

2012. Hopeful, real estate signs awaited sales of quake damaged land & housing. No buyers. Two Lucas Ln, cnr houses were rebuilds. A neighbouring ghost house was still boarded, garden overgrown.

2018-19. Stonehaven development would still be wrecked, roads tarseal patch repaired as in 2012.

Cliff St: Closed, a steel, road barrier at the bottom of the hill, no further development on Emily Hts. Three ghost houses had been demolished: the house at the bottom of the hill; the red rock, top house; the house below a loess cliff, where a fallen, red rock had obstructed the driveway. Only demolition sites were left.

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

See Residential land zoning complete (CERA press release).

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