A second slip has torn another chunk from the slope of a car park in Auckland’s Birkenhead seeing the landslide creep closer towards businesses.
What began as a small crack in Rawene Rd car park in August, has steadily worsened. In October, the back half of the car park slipped down a gorge on October 8.
Now, a second landslide has appeared directly next to the initial slip, on the western side, and the edge of it is a lot closer to the back of Birkenhead’s Mokoia Rd shops.
However, in spite of the growing hole in the middle of the Birkenhead village, local morale remains high and there even a few “slip” puns flying around the town, said Birkenhead Town Centre Association chairman Pete Taylor.
The new slip is visibly steeper in appearance compared to the initial slip in October but not as deep.
Of course there are worries about the slip, but the main concern for the businesses is the parking situation, Taylor said.
“Although the slip is increasing, we’ve actually managed to mitigate the car parks,” he said.
“We have come up with some really cool solutions. We want our customers safe and enjoying the village.”
Brett Norris, a worker in nearby Rawene Chambers, said it is disappointing the slip has happened, but due to the instability that was “always likely”.
“It’s going to cause more issues going forwards. The business association has done a good job of trying to free up car parks and Auckland Transport is helping,” Norris said.
“This extra problem is not one we expected or anticipated. I think it caught everyone by surprise.”
Auckland Transport Mark Hannan said for public safety all pedestrian and vehicle access to the Rawene car park access road is now prohibited.
The kerb that joins the Rawene car park access road to the pavement is split apart like a broken zipper.
An engineering team and technical specialist was working on the problem and reviewing the stabilisation work which was being done.
“Options to progress the stabilisation work are being investigated and we expect this work to be paused for at least one week.”
Article by Laine Moger
Published November 30 2017 North Shore Times – stuff.co.nz