Work is set to begin to remove unsafe buildings at 29 and 47 Wellington Road, Kilbirnie.
The planned demolition announcement was made by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency in February this year.
Waka Kotahi Director of Regional Relationships Emma Speight says the decision to demolish the buildings was made to protect people and properties.
“We decided to demolish these buildings given their earthquake risk. Decisions about the future use of these sites will not be made until we have greater certainty about what land is needed for Let’s Get Wellington Moving’s Strategic Highway Improvements project.
“Leaving the buildings as they are would put people and neighbouring properties at risk in the event of a major earthquake. We thoroughly investigated options for strengthening before we decided to go ahead with demolition.”
Demolition work will begin in early July and take approximately three to four months to complete. Waka Kotahi has written to neighbours in the area to inform them of work beginning.
“Demolition is noisy work. We’d like to apologise in advance to our neighbours and thank them for their understanding,” Ms Speight says.
“The buildings are located on a busy section of State Highway 1. We will minimise disruption to journeys as much as we can by ensuring our truck trips to and from the area are scheduled outside of peak traffic.”
Let’s Get Wellington Moving has work underway to develop the indicative business case for Strategic Highway improvements. This business case will identify preferred options for unlocking the Basin Reserve and providing an extra Mount Victoria tunnel – including any changes that may be required at Wellington Road. The indicative business case is expected to be completed by early 2021.
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