CBD red zone public visits
The Christchurch central business district (CBD) public access programme provided an opportunity for people to see for themselves, the earthquake damage to the Christchurch CBD and the Cathedral. All told, the CBD bus visits and the Cathedral walkway attracted 170,000 people.
CBD bus visits
The CBD red zone bus visits ran between 5 November and 11 December 2011. 30,000 people participated.
Video of the bus route
A video of the route was produced for those who could not take part in the public bus visits.
The public CBD bus visits did not have a running commentary, however CERA produced an audio track featuring a commentary from the general manager of demolitions Warwick Isaacs.
The Cathedral walkway
The Cathedral walkway was open on weekends from November 12 to December 18 2011, and again on the weekends of 10-11 March and 17-18 March 2012. This allowed people to observe for themselves the damage to the Cathedral, and the fate of buildings in Colombo Street, between Cashel Street and the Square. 140,000 people took part in the Cathedral walkway.
Cathedral walkway video
A video of the route was also produced for people unable to visit Cathedral Square.
Facts and figures
- The full capacity of 30,000 bus visit seats had been booked by 2 December 2011.
- The bus visits originally ran on Saturday afternoons from 2pm to 6pm and from 10am to 6pm on Sundays, but this was changed, adding an hour at each of each day to increase capacity.
- Twilight visits further increased capacity on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 5pm and 8pm from 14 to 25 November 2011.
- Buses ran every ten minutes during the weekend and weekday tours, departing from Cranmer Square.
- The CBD red zone was an active work site at this time, so CERA structural engineers worked to established a lower risk route through the red zone, and continued to check this for the duration of the visits.
- 140,000 people took part in the Cathedral walkway visits over the eight weekends they operated.
