The government says its plan to build massive underground dams around worst hit areas of Canterbury will mean that land is better protected than it was before September’s big earthquake.
The plan would see stone pillars driven into the ground to create large underground walls, with 8 areas already identified for the work including Avonside and Kaiapoi.
The Government will pay an estimated $200 million for the project but it needs council approval so the walls can be built on public land.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister, Gerry Brownlee, says the walls could even increase property values in the worst hit areas as they’ll become sought after places to live.
– NewstalkZB
Homepage / Chris Geary
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Ken Ring on 25/11/2010 10:43am
Nice intentions, but it is hard to imagine how an earthquake powerful enough to shake a whole city, to cause paddocks to roll as if they were ocean waves, and to crumble solid rock cliffs to fine gravel, will stop dead in its tracks with a whimper when it reaches a thin man-made concrete wall.
The 7.1 earthquake traveled about 20 miles through dense ground from Darfield to the CBD and still wreaked havoc. Is this wall going to be more than 20 miles thick? If so it will be another wonder of the world, a bigger structure than the Great Pyramid. And the likelihood of an earthquake revisiting the same area is remote, or Wellington, Napier, Murchison and Edgecumbe will be hit again well before Christchurch. Are they getting concrete walls too?
If there is $200 million on offer, is it not better to spend it on recent victims who still don’t have proper toilets and adequate plumbing?
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