CBD chaos: First roadblock set to open today

Riggers fix plywood sheets to the corners of panels on the Victopia apartment building.

One of the busy roads closed outside a central city apartment tower where a 40kg panel blew off in a storm on Thursday is expected to be partially reopened to traffic later today.

The loss of the panel from the Victopia building on the corner of Victoria St West and Nelson St forced road closures, causing long traffic delays.

Ian Harris, who represents apartment residents, said Victoria St West will be reopened after temporary safety measures are completed on the Victoria St facade of the tower. One lane will remain closed to traffic.

Nelson St is likely to remain closed to traffic until Tuesday at the earliest, he said.

At lunchtime today, riggers working on the Victoria St facade are expected to finish installing plywood sheets on the corners of building panels that engineers have identified as needing reinforcement, Harris said.

This will allow a team of abseilers to throw netting over the remaining half of the Victoria St facade. Netting has already been thrown over the other half of the facade.

Harris said the section of Nelson St from the intersection of Victoria St West towards the city will remain closed tomorrow, but is anticipated to be opened on Tuesday.

This is to allow work to continue applying plywood sheets on the Nelson St facade of the apartment tower.

As a precautionary approach, scaffolding on the Victoria St facade of the building will be extended up the full height of the building. It is currently up to level six as part of $40 million of remedial works on the leaky tower.

Harris said a traffic management plan has been approved for the scaffolding as part of the remedial work, which includes closing one lane.

An Auckland Transport spokesman said the council body will be assessing the situation with road closures at 4pm today.