Demolition experts astounded that church stayed up during New Zealand quake.
The owner a historic Christchurch building that iss being controversially pulled down says it is a miracle it didn’t collapse during the earthquake. The demolition has exposed less steel in structure than originally thought; despite this, opponents still desperately want to save it.
Three weeks into the demolition and the interior of Manchester Courts is finally exposed. “It’s a bit of a miracle that it is still up it should be on the deck,” says Alan Edge of Southern Demolition.
A closer inspection shows how the brick columns are ready to crumble; the historic eight story building has much less steel reinforcing in its bones than first thought. “The concrete is not even fixed to the walls; they haven’t even run any steel runners down to the bricks, the concrete is just held by the roof section,” Mr Edge says.
The revelation has even astounded its owner. “I am a bit surprised; I would thought the internal steel would have been a bit more robust and more in there but I guess it reinforces what we thought the building was severely unstable,” Richard Peebles says.
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