A 125-year old hotel will soon be lifted from its based and moved to a temporary location to facilitate excavation work at the new Victoria Park Tunnel in Auckland, New Zealand. The project is part of motorway extensions taking place in the city.
The Birdcage, built in 1885 as the Rob Roy Hotel, will be jacked up, put on concrete beams and moved 40m up Franklin Road in the city suburb of Freeman’s Bay. Upon completion of the work in about six months time, the hotel will be moved back onto its original site on top of the new tunnel and become part of a new plaza.
Helen Cook, a member of the Victoria Park Alliance, told local reporters that the sifting process is expected to take about six to 10 hours. The 450m long Victoria Park Tunnel Project is one of the seven roads of national significance. Construction of the tunnel will eliminate the last serious traffic bottleneck on the central motorway junction between the Auckland harbour Bridge and the Newmarket Viaduct. The tunnel will take three northbound traffic lanes, and the existing Victoria Park viaduct will be reconfigured to carry four southbound lanes.
