CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) – Christ Church Cathedral was probably New Zealand’s most iconic building before many of it collapsed in an earthquake ten years ago. The years-long debate over whether the ruins should be rebuilt or demolished symbolized the paralysis that sometimes plagues the broader reconstruction of Christchurch.
As the city has conquered a decade since the earthquake took place on Monday, 185 people have died and numerous more have risen, there are finally signs of progress with the cathedral.
It is being rebuilt to look like the original that was completed in 1904, only with modern improvements to make it warmer and safer, even adding extra much-needed bathrooms. But first, workers need to stabilize the surplus.
Peter Carrell, the Anglican bishop of Christchurch, said its reopening would be an important milestone.
“I think it will be very important because it will be one of the last pieces in the jigsaw to put Christchurch back together,” Carrell said. “It will be a healing from the heart of Christchurch after the earthquake.”
However, the doors are not expected to open for another six years. Preserving what is left is more expensive and time consuming than demolishing and starting over. And so far, the mix of funds from insurance, church, council and government sources is only about two-thirds the price of $ 154 million ($ 111 million).
Keith Paterson, the project director, said the goal is for a fundraising team to raise the rest of the money from local and international donors.
“We are very confident that we will get the money when the project is finished,” Carrell said. “We have a lot of money to start with.”
Elsewhere in the city, shiny new buildings appear, along with innovative playgrounds and parks. But where some buildings once stood, there are now only empty parking lots, and the migration of shops and businesses to the suburbs that happened after the earthquake has not yet completely reversed.
There is also a difference in neighborhoods. Parts of the city in the west look a lot like before the earthquake. But in the east, where the ground was liquid, whole suburbs were leveled.
The authorities considered the country unstable for rebuilding. Some suburbs now look like giant parks, with a few fruit trees and power lines the only sign that houses were once there.
Richard Cosgrove’s home on the Avon River in suburban Dallington was one of those demolished. The communications adviser recalls the enormous forces that played out during the earthquake.
“The whole area sank massively,” he said. “We had a wooden villa built in 1922. The four corners went in different directions.”
Cosgrove said the strong community ties that emerged when neighbors tried to save their homes and worked to improve the area ended when the government declared it unsafe for rebuilding.
“It broke the community apart,” he said.
Cosgrove and his wife now live outside the city on a small farm.
“We thought that if we moved elsewhere in the city, it would remind us of what we had lost, and so we decided to build a new life in the country,” he said.
But he remains optimistic about Christchurch and its future. He said the hardships suffered by people brought the community together and made them strong and resilient, and that many of the foreign workers who came to help with the reconstruction were so impressed that they stayed.
“We have a wonderful city,” Cosgrove said. ‘It’s quite an impressive rebuild going on. I think of all the wonderful things they did. ”
Still, he says, it would have been nice if it had all happened a little earlier.