Shop sinks into excavation

Press, 7 October 1988, Page 5

Shop sinks into excavation

A shop window on Lincoln Road exploded over the footpath last evening as the building began sinking into excavations on an adjacent building site.

The owner of the Addington Bookshop, Mr Ken Kennedy, and a number of customers were in the shop when the window exploded, but no-one was hurt in the incident. Workmen had to rush into action to prevent the building falling any further.

The incident occurred at 5.15 p.m., after excava-

tions on the adjacent building site, at the corner of Lincoln Road and Spencer Street. A crew from an Ashburton firm, Bradford Construction, were preparing the site for a new T.A.B. building.

The external brick wall of the bookshop began sinking into an excavation but the first indication that anything was amiss was when the window blew out because of the distortion. “The window went out with a hell of a bang,” said Mr Dave Saunders, another tenant of the

building. M.E.D. staff were called in to cut. power lines to the wall, in case it collapsed, while Bradford Construction staff were called back to shore it up and board over the broken window. The wall was now in a safe condition, said the Manager of Bradford Construction, Mr Rodger Bradford, from Ashburton last evening. A full engineering report would be made today, he said. Because of the eage of the wall, he did not know

whether it could be saved, but he said that the problem was “of a minor nature” and would be dealt with quickly to cause minimum inconvenience to the tenants. The other shops in the block are an opportunity shop at the north end, and Mr Saunders’ Fleet Cycles in the middle. Although Fleet Cycles and the bookshop are separated by an alleyway, they are connected by a high parapet across the frontage. It was showing severe cracking last evening.