The partial deconstruction of the historic Dunedin Gasworks Museum’s cracked brick chimney has been hailed as a success.
During the past three weeks, contractors removed about 4000 bricks from the top of the chimney by hand, after structural changes were found to pose an "imminent risk to public safety".
In a statement yesterday, Dunedin City Council property services group manager Anna Nilsen said about 4m had been taken off the chimney’s height, reducing it to 21m.
"The top section has now been safely removed to below the level of the large cracks evident in the structure," she said.
"The expert advice we’ve received is that the chimney is no longer an imminent risk to the safety of those around it.
"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."
The exclusion zone around the chimney had been removed and the Dangerous Building Notice issued to the museum in April had been lifted, as had the Affected Building Notice on the neighbouring Woolworths supermarket.
"This means the museum can return to almost normal operations, albeit with some ongoing restrictions preventing the use of the chimney for now."
The bricks removed by Naylor Love had been individually catalogued and labelled and would be stored to preserve the option of a rebuild at some future date, Ms Nilsen said.
Costs for the work were 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."
She also thanked the Dunedin Gasworks Museum Trust for its patience and understanding during the deconstruction work.
A scaffold would be erected around the chimney for further assessment so future options could be considered. — APL
