Demolition of the council's old administration building begins

Demolition of the Tauranga City Council's old administration building. Photo/Andrew Warner.

A 50-tonne excavator is being used to demolish the Tauranga City Council's old administration building this afternoon as the mechanical demolition stage of the project begins.

The concrete will be transported by truck to a concrete recycle facility and reused.

It was anticipated the first stage of the demolition will take at least four weeks, depending on the weather.

A number of safety measures and appropriate noise, traffic and pedestrian controls would remain in place to minimise the impact on traffic, pedestrians, businesses and services during this stage of the demolition.

A spokeswoman from the council said safety measures included fencing off the library carpark area and the large container wall on Willow St.

The council's Customer Service Centre and the Tauranga Library would remain open as normal.

City transformation committee chair Larry Baldock thanked the community for their patience during the deconstruction and demolition.

"We are on a journey to become an internationally competitive city, and revitalising our city centre and our waterfront is a key component to this," he said.

"The demolition of the old administration building is a short term disruption for long term gain."

The demolition can be viewed from a web cam feed on the council's website.

Council was partnering with Little Big Events to activate the space once the building was demolished and the site had been cleared.

"Our Place" will be a temporary addition to the city centre until investment decisions were made on the future of the space and the site was developed.

The council resolved in September 2016, as part of a Long Term Plan amendment, to demolish the administration building as soon as possible following the discovery of toxic mould in the building in November 2014.