Urgent house demolition in Redcliffs

KIRK HARGREAVES

DEMOLITION: The Balmoral Lane property will be destroyed this afternoon.

A flurry of aftershocks and bad weather forced the urgent demolition of aquake-damaged Redcliffs house today.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera)staff started demolishing aBalmoral Lane property this afternoon, after becoming concerned about its stability.

Police were alerted just before 1pm by Cera staff who had concerns about the house above Main Rd, near the Moa Cave and a cordon was set up.

Port Hills land clearance project director Brenden Winder said officials had noticed the building was "pretty distressed" last week, and had been monitoring it.

After the flurry of small aftershocks and bad weather over the weekend, the decision was made this morning to demolish the building.

Winderdescribedthe Port Hillsenvironmentas "dynamic" and with the reduced capacity of the house to stay structurally sound, buildings are "going to move".

If the building was not demolished today, it probably would have collapsed on to the road below, he said.

An excavator was being used to take apart the house from behind, and the debris was expected to stay atop the cliff.

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Urgent house demolition in Redcliffs