The Joy of Progress

Breathing life back into the heart of our city

Great News! We’ve celebrated a milestone! The Cathedral is now fully stablised for entry and repair! We are one step closer to fully reinstating our Cathedral and breathing life back into the heart of our city.

Stabilising works started in May 2020 and were completed in March this year— that’s about three years in the making (give or take a lock-down or two). And during that time no worker was harmed and no further damage to heritage fabrics occurred. This is worthy of a celebration!

“For ten years the Cathedral was in a holding space, so it is truly magnificent to see life returning. Being able to be inside is momentous progress and another great sign of our city rising again,” says Bishop Peter.

The Cathedral is now 34% NBS (new building standard) a seismic rating which means the building can be entered for repair and construction purposes.

“The progress on site over the last year, especially, is testament to the team getting it done. Every team member has put in a tremendous amount of work and their efforts should be recognised,” says Project Director Keith Paterson.

“Now we can start the next crucial phase of work: first strengthening the walls then working on the substructure with new foundations and base isolators.

“So, yes, we can now partially see into the building site and workers can get safely in to start the repair proper. Observers will still not see huge activity but rest assured it’s all happening in the interiorcritical work which will ultimately provide a building that is as safe as any new public facility,” says Keith.

The final stage of the programme will be finishing work and the internal outfit. Once completed the Cathedral will be the only earthquake damaged, neo-gothic stone Cathedral to be base isolated and seismically repaired to a new building standard. We are looking forward to the joy of that delivery.

“Reaching this significant stabilising milestone of the reinstatement’s journey makes the day when we reopen our doors to the world feel tangibly closer. I look forward to this day and when our Cathedral will again be a centre for the spiritual life of Christchurch,” says Bishop Peter.

To Date:

• 2 58 tonnes of waste removed

• 4 08 tonnes of steel framing inserted

• 200,000+ hours worked on site.

Biblical Pilgrimage 2023 – Israel and Turkey

September Weeks 1– 3