Port offers to dump Christchurch's demolished buildings

Tuesday 22nd March 2011 3 Comments

Lyttelton Port - one of the businesses hard-hit by Christchurch's earthquake of last September and the disastrous aftershock on February 22 - hopes to find a silver lining by using the rubble of demolished buildings to reclaim land from the sea.

The port company said today that accepting contractors can dump truckloads of rock, rubble and concrete at the reclamation area at the eastern end of the port.

"This scheme is a win-win," said port company chief executive Peter Davie.

"It benefits Christchurch because it diverts that material from landfill," he said. "At the same time, it will build future storage space and so assists the further development of the port as the cargo hub for the South Island."

Rubble disposal would be free, which, Davie said would give significant savings to building owners and insurance companies.

City authorities have previously told residents who tried to put out cleanfill such as bricks and rubble for rubbish collection that they will have to pay $25 a tonne for disposal. The city has produced huge quantities of tonnes of rubble, which will include buildings yet to be demolished, such as the 26-storey Grand Chancellor Hotel high-rise.

Tonnes of debris from the CTV and Pyne Gould buildings - in which an estimated 110 people died - have been kept isolated amid fears about asbestos and a desire to be as sensitive as possible about remains of victims crushed in the rubble.

Other rubble from damaged buildings in the city centre has already been sorted at the Burwood landfill, with materials such as concrete and bricks recycled - some of it to be crushed and used instead of "new" crushed rock construction.

The 260,000 tonnes of silt removed from city streets is to be turned into sand dunes at the old Burwood landfill.

The Canterbury Regional Council has supported the hard-fill dump at the port, which will be managed by Phil Mauger.

NZPA

Comments from our readers

On 23 March 2011 at 9:59 am Graeme Allen said:

Phew?..At least someone thinking pragmatically, lets have more of these doers to create our renaissance Christchurch. Onya's.

On 23 March 2011 at 10:28 am John McGirr said:

Well done someone is thinking outside the square, real win win.These are the people who need to be involved with the re build of Christchurch. John McGirr Greymouth

On 17 June 2011 at 3:26 pm Gene Enright said:

Yea right?.. This would be giving away valuable resources that would be better used as compaction for foundation bases for the many building, roads, paths etc to be reinstated in the community. You may see rubble but in reality there is hundreds of thousands of tonnes of materials and a lot of it reusable. Thousands of cubic metres of timber can be at the very least used for temporary structures or formwork for concrete structures etc. Yes Lyttelton Port has an opportunity to extend their own operations, but would it not be better for these materials to be used for the communities benefit?