The Dunedin Gasworks Museum is returning to almost normal operations after contractors safely completed the partial deconstruction of the site’s cracked brick chimney.
DCC Group Manager Property Services Anna Nilsen says contractors from Naylor Love have spent the past three weeks carefully removing bricks from the top of the chimney, reducing its height by about 4m.
“The top section has now been safely removed to below the level of the large cracks evident in the structure.
“The expert advice we’ve received is that the chimney is no longer an imminent risk to the safety of those around it, so the Dangerous Building Notice issued last month has now been lifted and the exclusion zone around the chimney has been removed.
“This means the museum can return to almost normal operations, albeit with some ongoing restrictions preventing the use of the chimney for now.
“The Affected Building Notice issued to the neighbouring Woolworths supermarket has also now been lifted.”
Ms Nilsen says the work by Naylor Love involved the removal and cataloguing of about 4000 bricks, which have been individually labelled and will be stored to preserve the option of a rebuild at some future date.
Costs for the work are yet to be confirmed.
“I’d like to thank our wonderful contractors for their incredible work in difficult conditions – suspended from a crane in winter conditions – while undertaking this delicate project with precision.
“I’d also like to thank the hard-working members of the Dunedin Gasworks Museum Trust for their patience and understanding during this important safety work.
“We know how much time and effort they put into making this site the fantastic attraction that it is for the benefit of our community, and we also know how much they treasure this chimney.
“We always said we’d try to remove as little of the chimney as possible, and the result is as good as we could have hoped for while putting public safety first.”
Further work will be required to assess and manage the remainder of the chimney, and there will continue to be restrictions on the chimney’s use until that work is carried out, Ms Nilsen says.
The DCC has requested specialist consultant Egis carry out a full condition assessment of the chimney and consider options for its management in future, including whether it can be used safely and what further work is needed.
“Members of the public will soon notice a scaffold being erected around the chimney, which will allow for further detailed inspections of the remainder of the structure to take place.
“We’ll then be in a better position to determine how we manage the chimney in future.”