Behind the Wire: NW Suburban Repairs, Rebuilds. Copthorne Hotel Collapse

Behind The Wire: Northwest Suburbs & Copthorne Hotel Collapse focus. Friday 27.09.13. Ever since the 4 September 2010 Quake, Cantabrians were behind the wire.

4 September 201 Quake: SMF-cordons evolved around damaged & dangerous buildings. Council's rapid assessments of buildings wasn't organized properly, so many dangerous buildings which should've been behind the wire weren't. I saw Council green-stickers and yellow-stickers on the same building in St Asaph St. I saw several assessment sticker confusions like that!

26 December2010 Quake: More SMF-cordons, more Council rapid assessments, more cockups for damaged, dangerous buildings. I saw Cashel Mall  SMF-cordoned at The Crossing & The Press building, Cathedral Sq, was red-stickered. But in the 22 February 2011 Quake, workers were inside The Press building: one was killed, others were injured!

22 February 2011 Quake: 185 dead, 6 600+ injured. Instead of red-stickering, Council had twice green-stickered the shaky multistorey CTV post 4 September 2010 Quake & 26 December 2010 Quake. There were more SMF-cordons around properties. The CBD was SMF-cordoned & red-zoned for 28 months by Civil Defence, then CERA, citizens banned. Only people allowed behind the wire: CERA approved contractors, CERA officials, cops & NZDF- soldiers.

13 June 2011 Quake & 23 December 2011 Quake Swarm: More SMF-cordons for damaged, dangerous buildings. 

CERA red-zoned 8060 residential properties along riversides & on the Port Hills. All ended up behind the wire after evacuations, CERA's takings & demolitions. While red-zoners negotiated CERA offers they were behind the wire formed by CERA's red-zoning.

Some people were still behind the wire, while CERA dithered over red-zoning reviews. CERA minister Brownlee often apologized for CERA delays, jabbering about getting things right despite CERA delays!

EQC & insurers followed Brownlee's delay tactics putting property owners behind more wire.

Likewise 28 000 TC3 green zoners were behind the wire: compelled to strengthen house foundations on damaged land.

While 1 000s of demolitions took place in the CBD & in residential red-zones, all those properties were behind the wire. After CBD demolitions, there was rubble, dust, weeds & Wilson carparks in the CBD, behind the wire. In residential red-zones, once CERA demolitions finished, overgrown properties had shrubs & trees left. CERA then put residential red-zone properties behind the wire again: CERA no access signs hung on wire fences.

Three years post 4 September 2010 Quake, that wasn't the end of the wire: repairs, rebuilds in the suburbs, demolition sites, construction sites behind the wire.

SCIRT workers were behind the wire, SMF-cordons & RPRC-cordons, while while excavating & repairing roads.

Depending on viewpoint, insider or outsider, we were all behind the wire in quaking Christchurch.

Friday 27.09.13. On her drives to London St work, Leah dropped me off by North Hagley Park. I tekked back home to Burnside, 6km odd. I avoided noisy main roads like Memorial Ave, Wairakei Rd & Papanui Rd while trekking back to Burnside via quiet roads in Fendalton, Merivale & Bryndwyr. I crossed busy roads like Holmwood Rd, Glandovey Rd & Idris Rd, but left them asap. 

Northwest suburbs, behind the wire: I saw some damages, but some damaged properties were invisible, as some houses hid behind high garden walls & wooden-fences. Damages were evidenced by many contractors' vehicles I saw parked by fencing: concreters, asphalters, roofers, cladders, electricians, plumbers, plasterers, painters, tree trimmers, scaffolders, builders, landscape designers...

Contractors, architects, builders & insurers hung their advert boards on the wire. Election boards hung on fences showing grinning faces. Real estate boards touted damaged housing for sale: "TC2... Geotech & LIM reports available... As is where is basis... No insurance... Repair or Rebuild option... Auction..." God help Council when it calculated new rates for CERA's green-zoning: TC1, TC2, TC3. What a mess! Town clerk Marryatt resigned just in time for another CEO to be blamed for new rates.

As so many houses still needed repairs & rebuilds, it was an indictment of slow EQC & slow insurers. Complainers in other suburbs were justified in their complaints about EQC & insurers. (During & after 2016, thousands of shoddy EQC repairs overseen by Fletcher would need to be redone).

Nwest suburbs I trekked were a strange mix of mostly inhabited houses, some behind the wire, some ghosts, some demolition-sites, some construction sites, many repair sites, more homes still without repairs, evidenced by boarded walls, boarded chimney-gaps & boarded-windows. Some house walls & garden walls were wood-braced, grey weathering showing how long it took EQC to settle undercap $15 000 - $100 000 repairs & insurers to settle overcap $100 000 repairs.

For small repairs below $15 000, home owners were cash paid by EQC. Our Heath St, three bedroom rental had minor cracks, garage doors no longer locking, but we still awaited repairs. Our slumlord pocketed EQC cash, leaving the house unfixed. We had lots of experience seeing slumlords doing few repairs, as pre-quakes & post-quakes, nine years so far, Jake had tenanted many rentals, including over-wintering in a garage with chemical-toilet for six months post 22 February 2011 Quake. During our 19 years' Christchurch residence, slumlords we knew did few repairs & less maintenance on their rentals. 

Home owners had the choice to take EQC / insurer money & run, or use it for repairs. Undercap repairs were overseen by Fletcher, CERA's stooge, or homeowners could opt out of Fletcher repairs & contract their own repairs, hence all the different contractors. Not a Fletcher advert board in sight, as Fletcher sub-contracted shoddy repairs. Non repaired houses would cause anomalies in future Rates Valuations & hassles for future home buyers in suburbs.

Nothing stopped vendors pocketing EQC / insurance payouts, not fixing their housing & vending as is, where is. If buyers & real estate agents & conveyancing lawyers were asleep regarding post-quake house repairs, there would be hell to pay for future house buyers! Buying a pre-quakes house in Christchurch would be chancy. Despite post-quakes repairs / rebuilds hassles, I saw several real estate boards touting houses or land for sale en route. 

My notes gave an idea of many contractors doing post-quakes residential repairs & constructions in northwest suburbs. Ramping up at last, residential repairs & constructions, three years post 4 September 2010 Quake:

Helmores Ln off North Hagley Park: Helmores Ln Bridge, a wood-span bridge over Avon River, SMF-cordoned & white / orange plastic-bollarded. I saw the wood-spans were OK, but spans were ripped away from concrete-abutments sunk in Avon River mud. I saw that abutment / span-join damage all over Christchurch. Piers & spans withstood quakes OK, but abutments sank into mud, or tilted at odd angles from spans, causing damage to spans. Some spans rotated horizontally in quakes, causing concrete spalling off abutments.

Helmores Ln Bridge: Repaired by SCIRT, 2016.

Helmores Ln: A demolition-site. GREGG builder board on hedge. MEADOW landscape board, Architect board, Structural engineer board. Surveyor board on a SMF-cordon by a  a construction site. A parked CONCUT van.

Holmwood Rd: I saw a broken brick-wall behind a SMF-cordon. Boarded window on two-storey house. HARCOURTS For Sale board on a fence by a construction site. I saw a yellow-digger on a SCIRT excavation behind a SMF-cordon & detour by Holmwood Rd / Memorial Ave junction.

Garden Rd: I saw a patched house-wall, a wood-braced garden brick-wall, a blue tarp on a garage door. Boarded wall on brick house. Ghost house, overgrown garden.

A broken brick-wall had a locked gate by a demolition-site. Boarded window, two-storey house. DUNCAN TAYLOR builders board on a fence, Duncan Taylor van & orange digger on a demolition-site, SMF-cordoned. STONEWOOD safety-board on a wooden-fence. BUCHAN HOMES builder-board on a garden stone-wall.

An AVON DICKIE construction board on a garden brick-wall. A white dump-truck in a driveway. A ghost house behind locked picket-gate.

I saw a house with boarded-windows & a roof patch caused by a broken chimney, behind a wisteria festooned garden wooden-fence. I saw a NEW ZEALAND POST notice on a footpath letter-box which informed residents of closure of postal facilities, like roadside letter-boxes. Sackings were not mentioned!

NZ Post notice:

                 Please be aware this posting receptacle will be removed
                              between 7 October and 11 October 2013.

                    Mail will be cleared as usual until the box is removed.

                The nearest posting box is 60 Holmwood Road with a final
                                              posting time of 2 pm.

New Zealand Post is optimising the network of posting facilities to ensure a fair
balance between community needs, customer usage and servicing / security
                                                         costs...

I saw the quake-survivor, wooden road-bridge over Wairarapa Stream, its concrete-abutments were OK. I saw a collapsed brick & tile house, Wairarapa Tce off Garden Rd. Three years trekking post 4 September 2010 Quake, I thought I'd seen it all, but I was still spooked when seeing collapsed housing for the first time. A HARCOURTS Auction board: uninsured, two-storey wooden-house. I saw another two storey wooden-ghost with an unrepaired top-storey corner.

I saw an IAG insurer board on a steel gate. I saw a part-demolished, two-storey house near a construction site: concrete foundations were laid, SMF-cordoned. I saw a SUGRUE construction board on the cordon fence.
 

I saw a BAYLEYS Auction board, house SOLD.
   

Poynder Ave: I saw a BEHIND THE WIRE board on a SMF-cordon near a shipping-container on a construction site. I saw more boards on the cordon fence: Hazard board, VERO insurer, JOHN CREIGHTON builder.

I saw a LANDSCAPES design / construction board on a wooden-fence by a scaffolded two-storey house. I saw a big construction site with a TAKAHE construction board on the fence. A CSL shipping-container was parked on the road.
  

Wroxton Tce: I saw a wood-braced garden brick-wall. An election poster was on a wooden fence. I saw a parked LASER PLUMBING van.

I saw black plastic covering a bay window of a two-storey house. Faded boards covered a fallen chimney-hole of another two-storey house. Like those houses & others awaiting repairs, friends of Leah's still awaited EQC's & insurer's decisions whether their house near Wroxton Tce would be repaired, or demolished for a rebuild. Three years post 4 September 2010 Quake, huge stress was caused by slow insurers!

I saw a parked van, A TEAM plasterers: When I took a pic, a plasterer gave me a thumbs-up. He was making big bucks from repairs. I saw a demolished garden wall, it was steel & orange-plastic fence cordoned.

Wroxton Tce / Idris Rd junction: I saw election posters on a boarded fence. I saw another election poster on another wooden fence, Wroxton Tce corner.

 

Idris Rd: I saw a yellow-digger making a heap of roof-metal for salvage on a house demolition-site. A red salvage truck reversing into the driveway caused a traffic-jam. Road users were familiar with trucks causing traffic-jams all over Christchurch. The nearby electrical substation was wood-braced.

Glandovey Rd: I saw a scaffolded garage & an election poster on a wooden fence. A WARNER fences van reversed into a driveway. A painter's van was parked in another driveway.

I saw another two-storey house with boarded windows. I saw a brick gate-post strapped to a wooden fence that stopped collapse. Since quakes, nylon straps secured loose bits of buildings all over town. EQC & Fletcher & insurers took too long doing simple repairs like a dangerous gate-post by a busy road!

 

An OPRC-cordon surrounded a yellow sewage-pump which obstructed traffic in the middle of the road. Traffic would be obstructed by road works for years to come. SCIRT was only now ramping up CBD road works!br />

Glandovey Rd / Garreg Rd: A new town house construction was SMF-cordoned. I saw several boards on the wire: INTEGRA masonry, Hazard, DULUX paint, LIGHTING PLUS.

Garreg Rd: A demolition-site's HARCOURTS Sold board was SMF-cordoned. A MILES construction board hung on the wire. I saw a CBEER construction board & a hazard board on a wooden fence. I saw a CARTERS builder DANGER board on another wooden fence. I saw TREEWORKS trucks parked on a driveway near flowering cherry blossoms. I saw a brick-house with a wood-braced end wall. Another house was wood-boarded in front.

Ashby Pl: I saw two large two-storey, concrete & brick ghosts, both SMF-cordoned. The brickwork was cracked, bricks fallen in places. Some windows & walls were boarded.

Bryndwyr Rd / Newell Ave: On a driveway I saw a parked painter's van, the painter was packing up. Cracks painted over?

*Trekked Helmores Ln, Holmwood Rd, Garden Rd, Poynder Ave, Wroxton Tce, Idris Rd, Glandovey Rd, Garreg Rd, Ashby Pl, Newell Ave, Victoria Sq, Manchester St, Cambridge Tce. 165 images.

Victoria Sq: Saturday 28.09.13. OneNews reported that the ten-storey Copthorne Hotel had collapsed during demolition. No one was injured while a Southern Demolition digger chomped. Unsafe demolition: I later saw the two wobbly, north & south shear-walls & disconnected concrete-floors which had collapsed in-between. Why did it take so long demolishing? Nearby, abandoned Town Hall up Colombo St  had got a helluva shaking!

Behind a SMF-cordon, Victoria Sq, the Queen Victoria statue was amused. Capt James Cook's statue just stared. He'd seen it all before.

29.09.13. Victoria Sq view, demolition collapsed Copthorne Hotel. Capt James Cook statue foreground left

Like Town Hall, multistorey Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel & other ghosts & demolished buildings in the vicinity like Copthorne Hotel were all built on swampland near Avon River. Copthorne Hotel was abandoned for over two years while ruins behind it were demolished, including PWC high-rise, so Copthorne Hotel hadn't only endured 13 000 quakes, but endured 1 000s of digger thumpings during demolitions. Its steel-rebars would've been shaken & shocked by quakes & demolitions. On a SMF-cordon, a threat signs:

DANGER
KEEP OUT

EXTREME DANGER
KEEP OUT

AUTHORISED
PERSONNEL ONLY

29.09.13. Victoria Sq view, demolition collapsed Copthorne Hotel. Abandoned Ernst & Young left awaited demolition

Sunday 29.09.13. From behind the SMF-cordon on Cambridge Tce, Manchester St Bridge, Armagh St & Victoria Sq, I had a good look at demolition-collapsed Copthorne Hotel: The northwest shear-wall had failed & sunk about a foot into soft ground.

29.09.13. Cambridge Tce view, Oxford Tce & demolition collapsed Copthorne Hotel. Abandoned Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel left awaited repairs. Abandoned Victoria Square apartments behind awaited demolition for CERA's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae. Abandoned Town Hall right awaited repairs

The northwest shear-wall on the outside was divided longitudinally by a stairwell in the middle. That was easily seen from Cambridge Tce, a huge concrete-crack on the northwest shear-wall base exposed failed rebars & tons of shear-wall concrete which had sunk into the ground. That caused the shear-wall base to bulge northwards. About half way up the northwest shear-wall, I saw a horizontal shadow-line of a demolished neighbouring roof. That shadow-line was about a foot below the horizontal shadow roof-line of the adjoining northeast shear-wall.

After a thump from a Southern Demolition digger, the northwest shear-wall failed, sinking into the soft ground & putting huge strain on rebars in shear-walls & rebars in the concrete-floors connected to shear-walls. The weakened rebar-connections snapped & the thin concrete-columns supporting concrete-floors snapped! The north & south shear-walls left standing had pancaked, collapsing the horizontal floors in-between. Anything living between those concrete-floors before collapse would've been pulverized!

At inner corners of the north & south shear-walls, all floors had rebars hanging where concrete-floors had snapped off & collapsed. I saw two thin concrete-columns still standing in the rubble between shear-walls, the sparse rebars just hanging.

29.09.13. Manchester St Bridge view, Oxford Tce, demolition collapsed Copthorne Hotel right. Abandoned Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel left awaited repairs. Abandoned Victoria Square apartments middle left awaited demolition for CERA's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae

29.09.13. Cambridge Tce view, Oxford Tce, collapsed Copthorne Hotel. Abandoned Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel left awaited repairs. Victoria Square apartments right awaited demolition for CERA's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae

As Christchurch red zone CBD was behind the wire for 28 months, guarded by cop & NZDF checkpoints, there was no public scrutiny in forbidden CBD. There would be delay while bureaucrats investigated Copthorne Hotel collapse during demolition. Waste of time & money.

That demolition fiasco confirmed why I'd never enter any high-rise in Christchurch CBD again, no matter how "safe." So far, after 13 000 quakes & many demolition thumpings in the CBD, how many shear-walls & other walls had repeatedly bounced, weakening bldgs? Quakes & demolitions weakened rebars. And Council wanted to reintroduce trams into the CBD, further weakening bldgs with their rumblings.

Those who worked behind the wire had a sledge-hammer mentality, still going despite new public scrutiny after cordons dropped. Hammering came from CERA minister Brownlee's red zonings & CBD Blueprint enabling red zone demolition bashings: bash residential red zoners, bash TC3 green zoners, bash CBD property owners in CERA's Blueprint Frame into submission!

London St: Behind the wire, Leah endured months of seismic demolition thumpings at her school, due to intermittent SCIRT excavations & part-demolitions of nearby Richmond Working Mens Club. She'd had enough & wanted to leave the school, after working there full-time for 9 years. (The school would only be repaired in 2015, two years after she'd left).

Papanui Rd: Behind the wire, Jake endured seismic thumpings when Chinese Methodist Church was demolished next door to his Brewers Arms workplace. When I told him about Copthorne Hotel collapse, he laughed. Deja vu: Under The Red Verandah restaurant collapsed beside him in 22 February quake, Worcester St / Tancred St. 

Horatio St: Behind the wire, Douglas Furnishers, Luke endured seismic thumpings while CERES demolition diggers demolished DB Brewery across the road, then crushed salvage-concrete on site. Whenever I fetched Luke from work, I experienced seismic thumpings, causing my parked car to bounce, while CERES diggers crushed concrete. When I mentioned demolition thumpings, Luke stared like I was mad. He'd habituated to thumpings, although his workplace shook several times daily when CERES digger thumped.

Like Douglas Furnishers, many weak bldgs along Antigua St, Horatio St & Balfour Tce were slated for CCDU's Blueprint Metro Sports Facility. So far, like Copthorne Hotel, they were weakened by 13 000 quakes & 1 000s of digger thumpings. Bugger worker safety, business as usual. 

Meanwhile, CERA appealed a court case which ruled red zoning illegal. (Red zones were formed by NZ National govt edict). Unless NZ National govt gazetted Avon River red zone as parkland, controlled by Council or DOC, future NZ govts could feed at Avon River trough, processing red zone land for developers.

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

See Rates hike to hit homes (The Press / Stuff Co). 

See Work halted after Copthorne collapse (The Press / Stuff Co). 

See $15m to connect Avon River to sea (The Press / Stuff Co).

See Tremors exposed Earthquake Commission (The Press / Stuff Co).