Rob Roy Home And Away

in Auckland Featured General RWC 2011 by Jon C — April 13, 2011 at 3:38 pm | 0 comments

The Rob Roy Hotel –originally the Birdcage- has been returned safely to its original site opposite Victoria Park west of the city’s CBD.

The heritage brick building was pulled and pushed 44 metres by a series of hydraulic jacks over the past two days and is now sitting on the site where it was built 125 years ago.

Except that the days of horse and cart are long gone. It’s now resting right on the roof of the southern portal of the new 450 metre long Victoria Park tunnel, which will carry three northbound lanes of State Highway One traffic through central Auckland.

The heritage brick building was pulled and pushed 44 metres by a series of hydraulic jacks over the past two days and is now sitting on the site where it was built 125 years ago, except that is now resting on the roof of the southern portal of the new Victoria Park tunnel.

Work began yesterday and ended just after 2pm.

So what now?
NZTA and its partners on the Victoria Park Tunnel project will now refit the hotel’s interior and restore water and electricity to the building. It is due to be returned to the NZTA, the owners of the Rob Roy, in August.

Next week the NZTA will be calling for expressions of interest for the future use of the hotel.
The area around the hotel will be landscaped as a plaza.

Total cost of moving it forward then back was $2.5m.

A closure starting next month of the Wellington Street on-ramp will enable the on-ramp to be re-built and the approaches to the southern end of the tunnel completed.

During the two days it attracted curious bystanders, one or two looking as if they had emerged from a 125 year old sleep.

NZTA’s Tommy Parker says: The team behind the move have shown a lot of innovation and skill to preserve a heritage building that is important to Auckland and New Zealand. Brick buildings of this age were not built to be moved around a couple of times, and it’s a really pleasing result that everyone can be proud of.”

Drivers will be able to start using the tunnel in November, three months ahead of schedule. The entire project, which also includes widening the motorway through St Marys Bay and reconfiguring the existing Victoria Park viaduct to carry four southbound lanes of traffic, will be completed next March, two months early.