Concrete progress

Press, 23 June 1981, Page 18

Concrete progress

The cry of seagulls and the smell of wind-blown debris will soon be a thing of the past for most people on a week-end visit to the dump.

The concrete “warehouse,” Christchurch's new Metro Refuse Station, will be officially opened tomorrow by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr AdamsSchneider and will be open to the public for use, from Thursday, June 25. The completion of the S2.BM Metro Refuse Station in Parkhouse Road, Sockburn is the first step in a 10 year master plan for solving Christchurch’s rubbish problems.

Work began on the city’s first refuse station little more than 18 months ago and the .completion and official opening is all on ■schedule.

The Parkhouse Road complex is the first of three stations planned for construction during the next six years. A station in the north of the city, an alternative site for which has not yet been decided, is scheduled to open in December, 1983 and another in the east, in Ruru Road, Bromley, in June 1987. Private motorists will pay at a kiosk on the road approaching the station. The cost for cars will be ,50c, for station waggons and hatchbacks $l, and for panel vans, pickups, and small private trailers, $2.50. The cost to commercial vehicles is $8 a tonne, with a minimum charge of $5. To determine the weight of rubbish dumped, commercial vehicles will drive over a weighbridge on the way in and across another on the way out.

Access to the dumping pit is from both sides of the building, giving a total of 24 low level tipping spaces for the general public and. eight high level spaces for commercial and local body vehicles.

Vehicles will back up to the edge of the pit to dispose of the rubbish. A front-end loader will then scoop the refuse into a large hopper at one end of the building and into the compacting machine below.

Until the proposed Waimairi landfill site opens in 1986. the refuse will go to the City Council’s ’ tip at Bexley and to the Waimairi County Council’s tip in Sawyers Arms Road. Garden refuse suitable for composting can be dumped at the end bay of the refuse station and re-cyclable materials such as glass, paper and metal — at the recycling centre, all at a reduction in cost.

The station will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and on all public holidays except Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Good Friday.