Government welcomes progress in Waimakariri
Earthquake RecoveryCanterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has welcomed the progress Waimakariri District Council has made in developing a programme of work to fix the damage caused by the 4 September earthquake.
"Kaiapoi wasn't badly affected by the 22 February earthquake so it's great they are getting on with fixing the damaged land and homes," Mr Brownlee said.
"This government is committed to rebuilding Christchurch and Canterbury as quickly as possible."
Waimakariri District Council will this week begin a series of six community meetings for the Kaiapoi and Kairaki and Pines Beach residents whose homes suffered the most damage in last year's 7.1 magnitude earthquake.
The meetings will inform residents of an indicative timeframe for when their land and council infrastructure, such as roads, kerbs and footpaths, water supplies, and drainage and sewerage systems will be fixed.
Waimakariri District Council has divided properties into geographic clusters with work to commence around clusters in six month phases, starting from January-June 2011 through to January-June 2013.
"Prior to the 22 February earthquake, the government had committed $140 million to funding additional land treatment works in Canterbury to give greater protection to people's property should a similar earthquake happen in the future.
"The 6.3 magnitude earthquake has changed things in Christchurch and the additional land treatment work has been put on hold in the city while we are working to assess the damage and conduct the necessary geotechnical investigations."
"The situation is different in Waimakariri as they only experienced minimal damage from last month's earthquake and we want them to get on with it. The work will see about 3km of perimeter treatment works, including stone columns, undertaken along the Kaiapoi River front to help reduce lateral spreading in any future earthquakes."
The Kaiapoi and Kairaki and Pines Beach areas experienced significant damage in the 4 September earthquake, particularly homes being damaged due to severe lateral spreading.
"Prior to 22 February, the Earthquake Commission (EQC) had assessed 1280 properties in the Waimakariri District as needing more than $100,000 + GST repairs so it's a complex task ahead organising the repair and rebuild of land, homes and infrastructure," Mr Brownlee said.
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