Lancaster Park stripped for demo
Christchurch’s Lancaster Park is being dismantled piece by piece.
The first step in the demolition, thought to be New Zealand’s biggest, started this month, and involved the removal of carpets, doors, lights, ceiling tiles and walls. The stadium has already been stripped of its 30,808 seats, lights, boilers, memorabilia and anything else that could be reused.
The Christchurch City Council decided in December 2016 the stadium was ‘‘uneconomic to repair’’ after the bill was estimated at between $225 million and $275m.
Council project director Lee Butcher said the council decided to do the work in three phases rather than putting out one large tender. The new approach would be more cost effective, he said.
The tender to remove the roof was released this week and work would start in May.
The 45-metre-high Paul Kelly stand would be the first to lose its top, followed by the 40-metre-high Deans stand.
The council was still working on the tender for the physical demolition, which it expected to release in June. Butcher hoped work would start in July and would take 12 to 14 months to complete.
The goal was to get the stadium reduced to a concrete and steel shell by June in preparation for that work, he said.
The demolition would involve the removal of 68,000 cubic metres of material above the ground and 30,000m3 below ground. By comparison, the entire QEII complex involved 23,000m3.
Butcher said most of the material would be recycled.
‘‘We are on track to send only around 2 per cent of the 68,000m3 of material to landfill.’’
Power, and all other services to the stadium, had been cut, which was a big job in itself, Butcher said.
‘‘We had to remove four large transformers that powered the floodlights. We also had to clear the 1.5 kilometres of gas pipe that fed the many kitchens and bars throughout the stadium.’’
The council would not say how much the stadium would cost to demolish, but a
2016 council report put it at about $20 million.
Many of the park’s assets have been bought and were being used in new forms across the country.
Some lights went to a West Coast speedway, the boilers were being used to heat the hot pools at Franz Josef, and
16,000 seats have been sold so far (5000 were still available).
Thousands of seats that could not be sold because of their condition were recycled for their plastic and steel.
The park’s war memorial gates would be protected and preserved during the deconstruction. The council has yet to decide the land’s future use.