Months of ``earthquakes' caused by roadworks have led to headaches - and property damage - for some Manurewa residents, as Joseph Barratt discovers
First they endured months of heavy machinery working day and night just metres from their homes.
Tiles popped, driveways cracked, roofs leaked, and cries rang out from residents around the work on Manurewa's on-ramp to the Southern Motorway.
Building the on-ramp and signal lights was originally meant to take three months. It took eight.
Surrounding homes were not sur veyed before heavy machinery was rolled in, work began ... and so did the ``earthquake' effect.
When The Aucklander visited affected residents, Paul Hammer was in his backyard building a new retaining wall to stop his land slipping further. Mr Hammer says the previous wall started to deteriorate when the on-ramp work began.
Cracks have appeared inside his house and the roof is leaking since the work started.
``You would think it would be standard practice to survey the homes around the area if they were going to bring in heavy machinery. It's bad management.'
Locals raised concerns when machinery used on the site set walls shaking.
``It feels like they just thought they could put our complaints off and then, after the work is done, we would forget about it,' he says.
There is a small gully behind Mr Hammer's property that abuts the motorway.
``They dug it down and removed the water and then, with all the vibrations, the land started slipping.'
Mr Hammer shows us a neighbour's property where a carport hangs precariously on one edge, teetering over a sharp drop to the gully.
Soil from beneath the concrete base has fallen away into the gully and the remaining pad is cracked and no longer level. It slopes downhill slightly. The cost of fixing it is estimated at $40,000.
``Our main concern is whether the subsiding is going to keep getting worse now that it is unsettled,' says Mr Hammer.
Oz Jabur, who lives next door, says his parents had just renovated their kitchen when the roadworks began.
``Then the new tiles just started popping up and cracking. We don't know if there has been damage to the foundations but, with that much vibration and damage, there probably will be some sort of long-term effect.'
The problem for most of the residents is that insurance doesn't cover damage caused by vibration. Their options for compensation are few.
They have contacted the roading body, the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), and held public meetings but, for most residents, to no avail.
Mr Hammer says an insurance assessor from the contractor, Transfield, was sent around but visited only two homes.
A Transport Agency spokesperson says: ``Individual issues are with the contractor's insurers to resolve.'
However, Transfield declined to talk to The Aucklander and passed our questions back to the agency.
The agency's regional director Wayne McDonald says there have been ``repairs to a boundary fence, adjustments to a silt fence, removal of graffiti, verges tidied and grassed, a
concrete barrier installed for safety, and the height of sign poles adjusted to give better clearance for pedestrians'.
Mr McDonald says any inconvenience the work might have caused is regretted. The project was ``challenging because of a combination of poor ground conditions and a wet winter in 2008'.
``As soon as the NZTA became aware of issues, specialist advice was sought to help resolve those issues.'
Mr McDonald says there should not be any long-term effects.
Manukau City councillor Colleen Brown says the whole process has been unsatisfactory.
``The community have had to keep prompting and prompting to get any where with this.'
Mrs Brown says there is a high- handed attitude from the agency and not enough consultation.
``The residents didn't know what sort of machinery was going to be used until it arrived. These residents have been left exposed. Where else have they done a major on-ramp like this right next to residential houses?
``They [NZTA] need to be honest. Just come to the party, sit and down and talk with the residents.'
Despite work being completed last year, the lights on the on-ramp have not yet been turned on. joseph.barratt@theaucklander. co.nz
14 05 2009
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