Erebus memorial scrapped despite engineers’ recommendation to build wall below site

Safety would be “adequate .. for both the structure and the surrounding land”. Photo / Supplied / Ministry for Culture and Heritage

By RNZ

While plans for an Erebus memorial in an Auckland park were abandoned for safety concerns, engineers had outlined a way to go ahead with it.

A memorial in Auckland’s Parnell Rose Gardens will no longer go ahead because of three slips since the anniversary day floods.

Officials say new geotechnical advice shows the site was “no longer suitable or safe for the long term” for the heavy concrete memorial that would cantilever outwards.

But the engineering advice recommended building a hefty wall below the memorial in the park.

“With this wall installed, the factors of safety increase to above the minimum values currently required by Auckland Council,” the 20-page report said.

Safety would be “adequate .. for both the structure and the surrounding land”.

The top of one of three slips below the spot where the Erebus memorial was due to be built after years of wrangling. Photo / Engeo geotechnical report

However, it added that slips might still occur below the wall.

It recommended further investigations by sinking boreholes before designing the proposed “palisade” wall, which would likely require big concrete piles sunk close together 5-10m into the rock.

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage commissioned the geotech report.

It said it decided a new site had to be found based on “careful consideration of the advice”, and after discussions with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust, Auckland Council and other project partners.