Statistics House demolition ahead of schedule

Thursday, 11 January 2018

Demolition of Statistics House in Wellington in early 2018 revealed new information about its partial collapse during the 2016 earthquake.

The demolition of Statistics House, parts of which collapsed in the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, is running ahead of schedule.

Contractors began pulling the building down just after Christmas and most of the building is now rubble, being constantly loaded into trucks.

Anthony Delaney, CentrePort's general manager of infrastructure and environment, said progress was better than expected.

Much of what was Statistics House is now rubble.

'We're about a week ahead of schedule. We're on track to have the building down by the middle of February, with the site cleared by late February/early March.'

**READ MORE:

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Although the speed at which the building is coming down makes it appear the project could be completed within days, Delaney said contractors also had to remove parts of the building below the ground.

'What you don't see is the foundations under the ground that we also have to get rid of. That extends the demolition time…We still have to go about two to three metres under the ground.'

The timing of the demolition had been decided in conjunction with other users of the port land, including Greater Wellington Regional Council - CentrePort's majority owners - Bluebridge Ferries, which operates from near Statistics House and Customs NZ, which recently began moving back into its headquarters, Customs House, which also suffered damage in the 2016 quake.

The fate of CentrePort's other major commercial building, which was previously used by BNZ as its principal building in the capital, remains unclear, with Delaney saying talks were continuing with insurers.

CentrePort was developing a plan of what it might do with the land cleared with the demolition of a number of its earthquake damaged buildings, and it was unclear whether this would involve new buildings, Delaney said.

'At the moment I am unsure whether we're going to be building more buildings or not.'