Quake repairs clear inner-city street

Photograph / Mark Mitchell

Residents have cleared out of a central Wellington street while urgent work is carried out on a quake-damaged carpark lift which could crash down in an aftershock.

Wellington City Council closed off Luke's Lane, between Manners and Taranaki Sts, after the 10-storey lift shaft became detached from the James Smith parking building in Sunday's 6.5 magnitude earthquake.

The council has said it has no authority to force residents out of buildings on the street.

However, council earthquake resilience manager Neville Brown told Radio New Zealand the street was "vacant" while engineers carried out remedial work on the lift shaft yesterday afternoon.

"It's a difficult situation, and we've suggested to them that they vacate because if we get a further aftershock, and this lift well is not restrained, there is the potential for it to fall.

"We're trying to be cautious and ensure people's safety in the case of a further aftershock that might dislodge this thing."

Mr Brown said engineers had started installing the first of several restraining brackets on the side of the lift shaft yesterday and more work would be carried out today.

The restraints, devised by seismic engineers, were designed to hold the lift shaft to the building in an aftershock.

Council spokesman Richard MacLean earlier told RNZ there were "quite a few" apartments, organisations and businesses in the area.

The street closure would disrupt a large number of people for a few days.

Mr Brown said assessments were continuing on other Wellington buildings damaged in the Sunday earthquake.

"Building owners, I'd have to say, have been extraordinarily responsible, and engineers have had a really busy few days with reinforcements called in from outside of Wellington to help get through the volume of work that is required."

The city was shaken by a magnitude 4.2 earthquake yesterday which GNS Science said was unrelated to Sunday's magnitude 6.5 quake.