Like other CERA designated orange zones, that section of Oxford Tce was limbo-land: "Further assessment required," while CERA got Tonkin & Taylor geotech reports, placing inhabitants & property owners under stress, as they couldn't live properly while officials dithered about quaked land.
Land zoning done by CERA had anomalies, so citizens asked for reviews of their land zoning from green zone to red zone, or vice versa. Others wanted CERA to stop dithering & make quicker land decisions about orange & white zones.
I wanted to see 4 CBD bridges, former red zone, starting at Manchester St Bridge & trekking downriver to the end of Oxford Tce by Fitzgerald Ave Bridge.
Over 17 quake months, so far, Christchurch roads had degenerated, some patch repairs done by Council. Most bridges had survived quakes, traffic flowing, but concrete bridge abutments at either end of bridges were battered, cracked, spalled, part separated from bridge spans, due to shaking & riverbank slumping. Some metal handrails for pedestrians on bridge sides were broken or skewed. Never mind riverbank slumping below bridge abutments & riverbed slumping below concrete piers. Would rebars in bridge concrete stretch like elastic, snap, or bend?
Parked near Council Central Library, Peterborough St. Post 22.02.11 Killer Quake, Gloucester St Central Library was abandoned in the red zone CBD. Whenever I drove Peterborough St towards Avon River it looked more derelict: ghosts, overgrown gardens, demolition sites. Some businesses struggled on, some houses inhabited.
Peterborough St: Some properties where I'd snapped months before were empty. Besides weedy sites, someone had sprinkled flower seeds to brighten up demolition sites: poppies, daisies...
08.02.12. Quake trashed house, Peterborough St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Manchester St Bridge: Near PGC demolition site, where 18 people died when the multi-storey collapsed in the 22.02.11 Killer Quake. Manchester St Bridge, concrete, 1 span, between Cambridge Tce & Oxford Tce looked OK. Pavement buckling between abutment & span, Cambridge Tce side.
EXTREME DANGER KEEP OUT. The bridge was still a NZDF checkpoint into CBD red zone, soldiers checking vehicle entry by a steel mesh fence cordon. Citizens, still banned from CBD a year post Feb 22 Killer Quake, demolitions ongoing, no rebuild, yet.
17 months post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake & 1 year post 22.02.11 Killer Quake, "rebuild" was a joke, as insurance payouts were delayed & insurers upped premiums, complaining about "risk." Cantabrians were experiencing Disaster Capitalism by insurers, CERA, EQC, Fletcher, landlords, contractors.
Wikipedia referred to Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine, whereby Klein espoused Disaster Capitalism: Some developed countries' politicians "exploited crises to push through controversial exploitative policies while citizens are too emotionally & physically distracted by disasters to mount effective resistance." NZ National govt's / CERA's red zoning of trashed areas was Disaster Capitalism: citizens losing their land rights, cheapskate offers from insurers & Crown, NZ National govt land-grabbing the lot.
NZ National govt did not protect residential red zoners from slow insurers. Residential red zoning by NZ National govt benefitted insurers, not insured, red zone home owners. Red zoning enabled insurers to pay less to red zone home owners, for a like-for-like rebuild of their damaged homes. Never mind 2007 RV. According to protest leader Rev Coleman, red zoners would have to go to the High Court to get fair payout from insurers. But citizens were pushing back by protests in parks & streets. I would attend several protests in 2012 for my blog pics.
08.02.12. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Checkpoint hut. NZDF checkpoint into CBD red zone, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake, Manchester St / Cambridge Tce. BNZ right would be demolished, 2013
08.02.12. EXTREME DANGER KEEP OUT. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St, NZDF checkpoint view, PGC bldg demolition site, Cambridge Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. 18 people died when PGC bldg collapsed. Both bldgs in the pic would be demolished, incl Ernst & Young beyond
08.02.12. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St, NZDF checkpoint hut view, CBD red zone, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. Both bldgs in the pic would be demolished incl Ernst & Young behind
18.02.12. Green portaloo, steel mesh fence cordon, checkpoint hut. NZDF checkpoint, Manchester St Bridge view, BNZ left & PWC right awaiting demolition, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. More than a decade post quakes, a new RC Cathedral precinct would be built on the PWC demo site opp Town Hall, beside Avon River
Madras St Bridge: Angled concrete bridge on an Avon River bend, 1 span each angle arm, by Oxford Tce Baptist Church & The Poplars apartments demolition sites. N-S bridge span, horizontally rotated clockwise, concrete corners sticking out, or crunched into abutments. Saw horizontal rotation of concrete spans on several bridges. Spalling at concrete bridge abutments, concrete footpaths & steps by the 9/11 Firefighters Reserve.
Near Madras St Bridge, Edmonds Clock Tower: Clock still stopped at 12.51pm, when the 22.02.11 Killer Quake struck.
08.02.12. Novo bldg, demolition site, by Shipley bldg, Madras St / Peterborough St, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Concrete spalling between abutment & span, Madras St Bridge, Kilmore St, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Steel mesh fence cordon. Madras St Bridge view, The Poplars demolition site, CBD red zone, 1 year post 22.02.11. quake. Edmonds Clock Tower right, clock still stopped at 12.51 pm, when the 22.02.11 quake struck
08.02.12. 9/11 Firefighters Reserve sign, Madras St Bridge, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Quake damaged pavement & curb, Madras St Bridge, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Spalled concrete steps, Madras St Bridge, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Quake gap in paving, 9/11 Firefighters Reserve, Madras St Bridge, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Oxford Tce view, Madras St Bridge abutment, sinking into Avon River mud, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. See spalling & hand rail levels behind 9/11 Firefighters Memorial
08.02.12. Oxford Tce view, 9/11 Firefighters Reserve, Madras St Bridge over Avon River, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Two Madras St Bridge, concrete abutments had moved / sunk about a foot on Avon River bank, Kilmore St side. I used my size 6 jandal (11 inches / 27cm long) often to measure depth / width of quake cracks.
08.02.12. Quake split hand rail on Madras St Bridge abutment, Kilmore St side, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Concrete spalling & movement / sinking of Madras St Bridge abutments, by 9/11 Firefighters Reserve, Kilmore St side, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Barbadoes St Bridge, by The Bricks: Concrete, 1 span. Concrete spalling at bridge abutments. Span, horizontally rotated anti-clockwise, opp rotation to Madras St Bridge. Some Christchurch footbridges would be demolished, like Medway St Footbridge (stored at Ferrymead). It would be years before road bridges were fixed properly by SCIRT.
Barbadoes St Cemetery stone wall, which collapsed on Cambridge Tce in the Feb 22 Killer Quake: unfixed, just a mud bank. Months before, post Feb 22 Killer Quake, when I'd trekked past during wet weather, noxious fluids oozed from the cemetery in quakemire, across the sunken road into Avon River.
08.02.12. FOOTPATH CLOSED. White digger. Post quake road works, Cambridge Tce / Barbadoes St, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Quake damaged, concrete spalling & sinking between abutment & span, Barbadoes St Bridge, Cambridge Tce / Barbadoes St, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Barbadoes St Bridge: Concrete, 1 span. One concrete abutment, cracked, leaning about 4 inches away from the span. On the other side of the bridge on Avon River bank, a concrete drain, manhole slumped towards Avon River.
08.02.12. Anti-clockwise span rotation from abutment, Barbadoes St Bridge, Oxford Tce side, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Tarseal patch repair. Quake movement & cracking of concrete abutment away from span, Barbadoes St Bridge, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. Anti-clockwise rotation of span clearly seen
08.02.12. Concrete manhole, quake slumped on Avon River bank, Barbadoes St Bridge, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. House demolition site, nr Barbadoes St Bridge, Barbadoes St / Cambridge Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Oxford Tce: Steel mesh fence cordoned, Holiday Inn ghost a mess, worse than what I'd seen post Feb 22 Killer Quake, when workmen did patch repairs to the road. Some Oxford Tce houses, still inhabited in the orange zone, most were red stickered, or abandoned, between house or flat demolition sites. Ghost houses. Off Oxford Tce, Bangor St pump house, old brick bldg, leaned towards Avon River. In Avon Loop, Bangor St pump house would be the only bldg surviving quakes & CERA's residential red zoning.
Holiday Inn would be demolished, July 2015.
08.02.12. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake damaged, abandoned, Holiday Inn, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. Holiday Inn would be demolished, July 2015
08.02.12. Quake damaged, boarded house, orange zone, Oxford Tce / Willow St, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Quake damaged, liquefactioned house, orange zone, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Why CERA took so long deciding on orange zoned, Oxford Tce land, only CERA could explain. Anyone could see Oxford Tce was finished. Only idiots would want to redevelop that trashed, riverside land again.
Swampland rebuild: "Land remediation" was engineer-speak for funding for decades to come. Engineers would use taxpayers' money to make underground explosions, then check soil results. Reasoning: they were checking "liquefaction" effects, so they could improve concrete foundations in post quake bldgs. CERA minister Brownlee & State Housing minister Smith extolled such nonsense! Anyone walking any Christchurch river bank could see liquefaction trashing of concrete foundations, concrete curbs, concrete drains...
In 1987-88 when I'd worked for DeBeers Koffiefontein mine in SA, I experienced earthquakes caused by underground mine explosions. The effects were different from Christchurch quakes. Mining explosion waves were higher frequency than quake waves. During one mine quake, I stood near our lemon tree, the tree quivered, leaves rustling in sync with high frequency waves. I'd never seen trees quiver like that in Christchurch quakes. Seismic waves in Christchurch caused trees to move up & down while a wave passed. I experienced that once while holding onto our nectarine tree when a quake wave passed.
So the 1m thick concrete slabs which engineers evolved for liquefaction prone land, post quakes, wouldn't stop a house on its thick slab floating up & down in a big quake. The thickened concrete slab would hopefully just stop quakemire penetrating the house floor. I doubted the thickened, concrete slab foundation would stop liquefaction flooding, as garden soil level would be level with the foundation slab top & ground settlement would cause flooding during liquefaction. The only real test for a house on a thicker, concrete slab foundation would be another big quake, not underground explosions.
08.02.12. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake tilted, Bangor St pump house, orange zone, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. Bangor St pump house would survive the quakes
08.02.12. Quake tilted power pole. Liquefaction mud pile, orange zone, Oxford Tce / Bangor St, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. SLOW PLEASE. Postal delivery, orange zone, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Quake cracked, slumped, orange zone, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. Slumping due to lateral spreading
08.02.12. Quake damaged, boarded, slumlord rental house, orange zone, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Oxford Tce: Meanwhile, some ghost houses were red stickered, uninhabitable by Council, others were green stickered, inhabitable. Anyone living in Third World, Oxford Tce, imbibing silt dust & hearing the Fitzgerald Ave pile-driver & road rebuild clamour for months, must've gone bonkers at Council's & CERA's bureaucratic inertia.
By Jake's old rental, power pole, hand-written sign:
S
L
O
W
PLEASE
The hand made, speed limit sign cajoled passing cars, not CERA's inertia.
08.02.12. Quake damaged housing, orange zone, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Apartments demolition site, orange zone, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Deep, wide slumping cracks, I'd seen months before, were still beside the road on Avon River bank. Little was done by Council road workers to infill. The house which Jake rented pre-quakes was cracked, boarded. Quakemire mounds I'd seen on pavements months before were still there. Oxford Tce: dusty, bumpy, gravel repaired. Council's City Care?
08.02.12. Quake cracked, slumped, orange zone, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. Slumping due to lateral spreading
08.02.12. Orange zone, Oxford Tce view, Avon River & Fitzgerald Ave road works, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Across Avon River, Fitzgerald Ave N bound lane, which collapsed riverside in the Feb 22 Killer Quake was being rebuilt, months of construction work: large, concrete retaining wall riverside, traffic congestion, other side of the road. Drove that congested road daily, taking Luke to Sullivan Ave tech lectures.
08.02.12. House demolition site & quake damaged house, orange zone, Oxford Tce, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
2011: When I'd driven Luke to tech in the mornings, we'd watched Fitzgerald Ave rebuild progress: pile-driver drove concrete columns into river mud. Fitzgerald Ave N bound rebuild neared completion after a year of traffic congestion. Other side of the road would then be rebuilt. Pity stalwarts existing nearby.
Rebuilt N bound lane was poor engineering: quakes rose Avon River bed, the new N bound lane was built too low by that Avon River bend. In future whenever Avon River flooded, rebuilt N bound lane would flood too!
Oxford Tce within Avon Loop would eventually be red zoned by CERA. All red zone houses would be demolished by CERA, incl Jake's old rental.
08.02.12. Quake damaged, orange zone, Oxford Tce, nr Kilmore St crossing, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Fitzgerald Ave / Avonside Dr / Kilmore St intersection: Congested traffic, channeled by orange / white, plastic bollards, from Bealey Ave to one side of Fitzgerald Ave, due to rebuild of collapsed N bound Fitzgerald Ave & Fitzgerald Ave Bridge repair. Traffic congestion continued for a year post 22.02.11 Killer Quake.
Fitzgerald Ave Bridge: Concrete, 2 spans, anti-clockwise rotated. Only half used & traffic congested, due to nearby road rebuild. Construction crew & equipment occupied other half of the bridge. Bridge abutments, spalled in places, patched cracks across the road before the bridge. Kilmore St side, concrete abutment, cracked, tagged. Post quake tagging became a big problem in Christchurch. All those newly bared walls to spray-paint.
08.02.12. Orange zone, Oxford Tce downriver view, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge over Avon River, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Quake cracked, concrete abutment & tagging, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge / Kilmore St, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. FOOTPATH CLOSED. N view, Fitzgerald Ave road works, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. White / orange, plastic bollards, steel mesh fence cordon. Fitzgerald Ave Bridge S view, quake demolition site, Kilmore St / Fitzgerald Ave, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. White / orange, plastic bollard cordon. Fitzgerald Ave Bridge view, post quake, traffic channelling, Fitzgerald Ave / Kilmore St, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Fitzgerald Ave Bridge view, post quake, traffic channelling by white / orange, plastic bollards, Avonside Dr / Fitzgerald Ave, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. White, plastic bollard cordon. Fitzgerald Ave Bridge view, serial quake trashed house, Fitzgerald Ave, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Quake gaps between concrete abutment & span, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge, 1 year post 22 02.11 quake
River Rd side, concrete abutment leaned at an odd angle, metal handrails split by the Feb 22 Killer Quake. Bridge concrete paving, spalled too, pipes seen below concrete.
08.02.12. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. N view, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. Fitzgerald Ave, N bound, road works left
08.02.12. Concrete spalling by span & abutment, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge / Avonside Dr, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Shipping container offices. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Avonside Dr, N view, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge, 22.02.11 quake tilted, concrete abutment, River Rd side, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. N view, quake cracked, concrete paving, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Fitzgerald Ave Bridge view, serial quake trashed, brick house, Fitzgerald Ave / River Rd, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake. The house would be demolished
08.02.12. Avon River bank, span anti-clockwise rotation, slumping & tilting of concrete abutment / handrail, away from span, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge / River Rd, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.12. S view, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge to Pickwicks demolition site, Fitzgerald Ave / Kilmore St, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02 12. N view, Fitzgerald Ave Bridge, to Fitzgerald Ave, N bound, road works, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
Council still had a big job to repair those 4 Avon River bridges. There were many more broken Avon River bridges for Council to repair. Council roads & bridge repairs would be incorporated into SCIRT, which would take years to repair Christchurch roads & bridges properly.
08.02.12. Orange zone, Oxford Tce, NW, upriver view, Avon River bend, nr Fitzgerald Ave Bridge, 1 year post 22.02.11 quake
08.02.11. The Press quoted Property Council's, Connal Townshend, complaining about Council's rebuild plan:
"There's no incentive for bringing buildings up to earthquake standards & that affects all our cities not just Christchurch."
Tell that to the families of the 185 quake dead Townshend!
*Trekked Peterborough St, Manchester St, Madras St, Barbadoes St, Oxford Tce, Fitzgerald Ave. 133 snaps.
Wed 08.02.12: 9.08pm, M4.2 quake, 9km depth, 10km SE of Lyttelton.
11.06pm, M4.3 quake, 9km depth, 10km E of Lyttelton.
Thurs 09.02.12. 0.51am, M4.2 quake, 9km depth, 10km E of Lyttelton. (GeoNet)
Felt them all.
As so many old & new bldgs failed in Christchurch during the 22.02.11 Killer Quake, designers, architects, engineers, builders had nothing to be proud of. Poor bldg checks by engineers pertained. Canterbury was a known liquefaction region, long before 2010-2011 quakes.
Suckled on Accident Compensation Corporation payouts, Kiwis had a "no blame, no lawsuit" mentality. "Mother Nature's to blame," cried deluded people.
I was sceptical of official "checking" regarding red, green, yellow stickering of bldgs, post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake. 17 months later, stickers showed disparate checking & shoddy bldg inspections. Bldg owners' tardiness regarding inspections was shown at the Royal Commission of Inquiry. Engineers just stuck to the latest revised bldg code. Even if a bldg was built to code, there was no guarantee the building would not collapse in a quake!
Death toll was recently revised from 182 to 185. Three more people died from long term quake injuries.
A year post 22.02.11 Killer Quake, orange zoners & white zoners still waited for geotech engineers, Tonkin & Taylor to check their land properly. Disaster Capitalism insurers just delayed payments, awaiting Tonkin & Taylor's land zoning.
Anyone driving around Christchurch could see ghosts awaiting slow zoning: ruined bldgs, masonry lying where it fell, tarps blown off, weedy lots, grey quakemire still on properties. A mess, compounded by by slow CERA & slow Tonkin & Taylor geotech engineers.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Rebuild at risk in new city plan (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Limbo land shrinks as properties red-zoned (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Shock and relief at red zonings (The Press / Stuff Co).
No comments:
Post a Comment