Permanent Home for Birdcage Tavern Confirmed

Posted Wednesday, April 07 2010.

The NZ Transport Agency has confirmed plans to return the historic Birdcage Tavern to near its original site when the Victoria Park Tunnel project is completed in 2012. The Birdcage is probably the most historically significant masonry building to be moved in the Southern Hemisphere. Salmond Reed Architects will be responsible for ensuring the heritage values of the hotel are protected.

The future home of the Birdcage has been the subject of robust discussion and consultation with the community and key stakeholders, including the Auckland City Council. The NZTA had considered leaving the tavern in the temporary site (further up Franklin Road) or shifting it elsewhere in Victoria Park.

The present location of the Birdcage will be above the southern portal of the Victoria Park tunnel, the design of which is a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel, to be constructed top-down. The Birdcage therefore, must be shifted to make room for the heavy machinery used for constructing and excavating the tunnel.

In the Victoria Park Tunnel Alliance, the NZTA and its partners face a number of challenges in planning for the move. These include:

• realigning a sewer tunnel under the tavern
• relocating the Freeman Bay storm water culvert
• strengthening the tavern itself
• reinforcing the southern end of the new tunnel to support the Birdcage

It is anticipated that the Birdcage’s move to its temporary home will be made in August 2010. To keep the historic brick building secure for its move, it will first be reinforced and placed on runway beams just below ground level. Hydraulic arms will then push it gently and very slowly along the beams up Franklin Road. The same method will be used to return the hotel to its new permanent home when the Victoria Park Tunnel is complete in 2012.

The building will be situated approximately 10m forward of its current location, and rotated seven degrees anti-clockwise so that one side of the tavern will be parallel to the new alignment of Franklin Road. The new position will allow for the construction of the tunnel portal and Orakei main sewer line (that needs to be diverted) to run behind the Birdcage at the tunnel entrance.

The Birdcage relocation work is being undertaken by the Victoria Park Alliance team with Dunning Thornton Consultants Ltd completing the engineering design. Dunning Thornton is one of New Zealand’s most experienced building moving specialists. The company has previously moved other significant buildings – the historic Waihi Goldmine Pumphouse, the Museum Hotel to make room for Te Papa in Wellington, and heritage buildings in central Wellington to make way for the capital’s inner-city by pass.