Soil movement causes cracks on street
A Hamilton CBD street has been closed as council staff work to find out what’s causing massive cracks along it.
Cracks were first noticed back in 2013 along Bryce Street in Hamilton.
Since then, around $40,000 has been spent on the maintenance of the cracks, including, sealing and waterproofing, removing parking spaces, widening the footpath and verge and re-routing the buses from that side of the road.
But the cracks have slowly and steadly crept up and moved more than Hamilton City Council have anticipated. And they are now trying to find out what’s causing the movement again.
On Friday, the westbound road and footpath was closed immediately until further notice.
Pictures show the extensiveness of the cracks stretched and staggered along the westbound lane and footpath of the city road between Seddon Park and Norris Ward Park.
Investigations by council indicated some soil settlement over many years under the road and footpath in the area.
‘‘Soil settlement is things that are compact and gradually moving their way down,’’ Council city transportation operations manager Denton said.
‘‘It’s slow and steady, but has crept up and just moved a bit more than expected. We just need to understand why the soil has started moving again.’’
Denton said it’s a precautionary measure as they await results from specialist consultants which won’t be received until mid-April.
‘‘This has been very slow and gradual and when we say faster than we expected, we are only talking still only about millimetres.
‘‘It may be that we open the road up again. But, for now, it’s a precautionary approach.’’
Traffic management is currently in place to redirect westbound traffic. Those travelling by foot are redirected to the north side of this section of Bryce St.
Running parallel to the road is train tracks.
Denton said she’s been in contact with Kiwi Rail over this time to ensure they’re aware of the issue. But she said council weren’t aware of any impact on the railway lines or service to date.
‘‘The tracks have been operating for a very long time.’’
Kiwi Rail did not comment. network Robyn