Road-safety work in Cathedral Square to start on Monday

2 May 2003

Scheduled work to improve the safety of the road surface through Cathedral Square will begin on Monday (5 May). The road will be closed to all traffic until Sunday (11 May).

The contractor, City Care, will replace the granite pavers on the roadway at the south east corner, from Worcester Street through to Hereford Street.
During this time, all buses and other traffic will be diverted around the Square.

“ We are hoping to get the job finished while the weather remains fine with as little disruption to the traffic as possible” says Chris Collins, the Christchurch City Council ’s manager for the project.

Background: At its December 2002 meeting the City Council considered a report on the Square which said work was needed on the road surface. It said there were two issues with the road’s existing granite surfacing - the pavers’ slipperiness when wet and the ongoing maintenance costs and the structural failure of the road surface.

The Council voted to replace the granite pavers on all carriageways with asphalt and to have the work done progressively to match repair needs and the pavement-renewal budget. Concrete pavers would be considered on those parts of the carriageways “where indicated for aesthetic design purposes and where traffic conditions permit”. The Council also instructed staff to recycle any undamaged pavers to be used when work is done on the Square’s north-west quadrant.

The full report from that meeting and the decisions can be found on the web.

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