People enter cathedral for the first time since 2011

Two restoration workers became the first people to legally enter the Christ Church Cathedral in over a decade this week.

The major milestone in restoration of the earthquake-damaged cathedral in Christchurch took place on Tuesday morning, with one of the workers capturing the moment with a GoPro camera mounted on his safety helmet.

It was the first time people had legally entered the building since Urban Search and Rescue workers searched the building after the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.

Site manager Gary Davidson, of Naylor Love, and senior engineer Pete Carney, of Holmes Consulting, were in the building for 10 minutes to assess any engineering or safety concerns before contractors started stabilisation of the columns in the cathedral’s nave.

Project director Keith Paterson said people were able to safely enter the building because extensive steel support frames had been installed around the outside of the cathedral.

‘‘This is a significant and exciting moment for the project and stabilisation phase, which is now about 90% complete,’’ he said.

The cathedral columns were in better condition than expected, Paterson said.

‘‘We were very happy with what we saw inside the cathedral.

‘‘There were no surprises, and, in fact, some of the columns we inspected were in better condition than assumed.

‘‘We can now confidently move forward and prepare the work plan for the next step in the project.’’

The stabilisation phase of the cathedral restoration project will bring the building up to 34% of the new building standard, which will mean the building is no longer considered earthquakeprone.

That opens the way for restoration of the building to begin.