Old Kowhai House reduced to rubble
The first of two South Canterbury District Health Board (SCDHB) buildings scheduled for demolition has been reduced to rubble.
Kowhai House was brought down on Tuesday, and the Timaru Hospital administration building will be subject to the same fate at the end of next week.
Built in the 1930s, Kowhai House on the corner of High and Queen streets was used as the hospital superintendent’s residence, and then the house surgeon’s residence. More recently Child, Youth and Mental Health Services worked from the building.
It was evacuated by staff and closed in 2011 after the Canterbury earthquakes due to engineers finding it had a ‘high seismic risk’ .
Child, Youth and Mental Health Services moved to the Kensington Centre across the road to continue its work.
Kowhai was condemned as it met 15 per cent of the building code standard, and it was estimated to cost $350,000 to bring it up to 50 per cent of the code or $600,000 for 74 per cent.
The Timaru Hospital administration building on High St, the laundry and supply building were also deemed not to meet current earthquake building codes. The latter two areas were strengthened while the staff from the condemned administration building worked from Cantec House then moved into a refurbished Gardens Block on the hospital site.
SCDHB chief executive Nigel Trainor said the administration and Kowhai House buildings were part of the evolving history of the Timaru Hospital site.
‘‘The construction of the administration building and Kowhai House mean they are a seismic risk during an earthquake and are therefore no longer fit for purpose. Over the past year we have been working to remove asbestos from the buildings in preparation for demolition.’’
He said a blessing of the two buildings took place at the weekend in preparation for the demolitions which were expected to be completed by October 9.
Rail money release
Whether $50,000 to investigate a planned resuscitation of the Christchurch to Invercargill passenger rail connection will be released by the government, should be known in the next few weeks. In June the government provisionally committed $50,000 to investigate whether to re-start the rail link. In the past fortnight Timaru mayor Damon Odey, who was at the forefront of the rail proposal, had submitted a business case for the funding to be released. Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment regions and cities manager John Doorbar said ‘‘no formal decision had yet been taken on this funding, but it will likely be within the next few weeks’’.
Plan Change 17 adopted
The Mackenzie District Council has approved Plan Change 17, which contains rules around how indigenous vegetation within the rural areas of the Mackenzie Basin is cleared. In a report to councillors discussed at a meeting on Tuesday, planning and regulatory manager Suzette van Aswegen said the rules prior to Plan Change 17 included exemption provisions associated with pasture improvement that allowed for clearance of short tussock grasslands and indigenous cushion and mat vegetation. The plan change suspended these provisions. A decision was made by a commissioner in July that the plan change be adopted, which the council was unable to alter, she said. Councillors approved Plan Change 17, which would become operative from October 7.
Police notebook
Incidents reported yesterday include:
A Christchurch man was suspended for careless driving and driving while suspended after he crashed his vehicle near Orari on State Highway 1 at 4.30am on Tuesday. Senior Sergeant Dylan Murray said the man lost control of the vehicle and slid 100 metres of the road and into a paddock. Murray said the man was lucky to avoid hitting a power pole.
A 24 hour police safety order was issued to a 23-year-old Timaru woman after a family violence episode on MacDonald St at 6.30pm on Monday.