Car park crack now a slip

The ground has completely fallen away at a North Shore car park that was earlier closed due to subsidence.

The rear section of Birkenhead’s Rawene car park was closed by Auckland Transport for safety reasons on September 20 following subsidence and the worsening of an already-existing crack.

The crack was about 30cm deep on Saturday but the slip got progressively worse and completely slipped away either late on October 8 or early on October 9.

Auckland Transport’s Mark Hannan said geo-tech and engineering investigations were underway and there was ‘‘no danger to the public’’.

The area is fenced off and the public are urged to keep out.

The subsidence had stretched into the neighbouring hillside by the weekend and workers in surrounding businesses said they’d seen it drop day-by-day.

AT has previously said the crack was not linked to adjacent construction work by private developers Chelsea Bay.

AT attributed the subsidence to the fact that the car park was built on an embankment of landfill.

Mokoia Ridge resident David Corlett said he was concerned that Auckland Council had underestimated the impact of piledriving on unstable land.

Rawene is a public car park owned by the council.

ZIZI SPARKS/STUFF What started as a small crack in a Birkenhead car park has turned into a complete slip