It's slow-motion for house shifters

The wooden villa coming out of Taradale and on to Hawke's Bay Expressway, toward Napier, on Tuesday night. Photo / Paul Taylor

For manager Noel Baker and his crew at Hastings House Removals it was just another heavy shift but for motorists and bystanders along the route from Taradale into Napier on Tuesday night, it was a spectacular and rare sight.

A wooden villa was on the move.

All 30 tonnes of it, which was well-lit and well-accompanied, went on a cautious two-hour journey from King St to Chaucer Rd.

"It went well," Mr Baker said, adding that it was slightly out of the ordinary in that the roof did not have to be removed or the building halved to fit within not only regulations, but also overhead cables and often restricted road sizes.

At about 11m wide, it just came inside the regulations in terms of the planned route.

Mr Baker said as much preparation went into the paperwork for carrying out such shifts as it did when it came to actually doing it.

The house had been privately bought and was being shifted from a site which was earmarked for development, with the first steps for the move being the removal of the chimneys about two months ago - while the paperwork and planning got under way.

On Monday the shift crew began using about 20 strong-lift synchronised hydraulic jacks to the ease the house from its foundations.

"We had it up and loaded that day," Mr Baker said.

Its transportation was aboard a specially designed heavy transporter vehicle which has strengthened suspension - with its tyres packing about 100psi.

Mr Baker said they made the shift at night, setting out about 9pm, so as to minimise any potential disruption to traffic.

Leading the way was one of the company's pilot vehicles which is the only one in the North Island carrying out a trial of new signage.

It is a New Zealand Transport Agency test with one vehicle involved in piloting heavy loads in the South Island also using the specially designed hi-visibility chevron markings.

Its driver, Barbara Baker, said she had carried out four piloting jobs since they were put on about three weeks ago and was impressed with the results.

"They stand out and people are seeing it better - we've had a great response from people we come across."

The trial will run until August 31 and she hopes they will get the official thumbs-up for all pilot vehicles to be equipped with the chevrons.

Mr Baker said Tuesday night's "delivery" was pretty straight forward with the transporter-borne house driven into place, the synchronised jacks arranged and applied, and the house eventually lowered on to its new foundations after the transporter was driven away.