Whether the nave of Christchurch's quake-damaged Catholic cathedral can be saved will be known in about two months, the Catholic diocese of Christchurch says.
The quake-damaged Catholic cathedral in Christchurch Photo: 123rf.com
In May, the church said that after four years of testing and modelling, it believed the nave of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament could be saved.
As soon as more rubble had been removed, further investigation of both the ground and the building would enable the church to plan with more certainty, the church's property and development manager Keith Beal said.
Options will be considered, with a view to having a more definite idea by the end of February, Mr Beal said.
The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is registered as Category 1 with Heritage New Zealand and as a Group 1 building in the Christchurch City Plan, and is listed as having international and national significance.
The diocese had put a cap of $45 million on the project, including the cost of deconstruction of the parts of the cathedral which were damaged beyond repair.
The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament has not been used since the magnitude 7 quake in September 2010.
Further damage caused by the February 2011 quake, and another in June that year, left it unsafe to enter.