Subscribe to RSSRob Roy Being Moved Back
Photos- Halfway there
Workers are preparing to start the two-day mission to move the Rob Roy (Birdcage) Tavern back to exactly where it stood 125 years ago.
Only now, that spot is on the roof of the Victoria Park motorway tunnel.
It will move back to the spot marked by the bottom arrow
This time the job will not be done at night - workers plan to stop at 6pm tonight and start again about 730am tomorrow. This time the hotel is being pulled for half the distance it went originally. The jacking sledges will then be lifted by crane to the rear of the building so that it can be pushed to its final destination.
The building will slide on four 40-metre long runway beams constructed parallel to Franklin Road. It will be gently muscled along the runway beams by a series of hydraulic rams - each stroke of the rams gently and slowly pushing or pulling the building forward 1.8 metres
The 1885/86 built hotel, which is owned by the NZ Transport Agency, will be restored and become the focal point of a new public square – the Rob Roy Plaza - at the intersection of Franklin Road and Victoria Street West in Freemans Bay. The plaza will be completed by the time of the Rugby World Cup.
2 Comments
Well this is motorway work worth doing. BUT, it is still only half doing it. The contractors offered to underground both directions for only 70m more. Instead they are going to spend some 30m on fixing the hideous viaduct. So the public square in front of the pub will still be under four of the busiest lanes of traffic in the country we will not get our park back. NZTA wanted the Council to pay for this as ‘only’ citizens would benefit, not motorists and truckers. NZTA are responsible for the loss of amenity in the first place so they should fix it. Quite apart from being a window onto the criminally limited ideology at work in ‘our’ institutions. Also there is no credibility in the argument that future harbour crossings mean it can’t be put under the park now before that work…. Call yourselves engineers? Cost accountants with a crushingly narrow remit more like it.
I agree Patrick, what an opportunity. When I first heard of the tunnel being built I imagined Freemans Bay becoming a No.1 spot next to the city and then I read further on.