Museum Hotel de Wheels
Encyclopedia
The Museum Art Hotel is located in Wellington
, New Zealand
. It is one of the largest buildings to have been moved from one site to another.
Weighing an estimated 3500 tonnes, this reinforced concrete building was moved from its original site, now the location of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
to a site some 180 metres down and across a major road.
The relocation started in May 1993 and was completed just over five months later. In a remarkable feat of engineering, the building was turned into a railway carriage, and wheeled on 8 sets of parallel rails 100 metres alongside a busy road. The wheels were then turned 90 degrees, and the building pushed across the road on another set of rails to a point where it was joined to new foundations, and recommenced operation as a Hotel.
During this process, the only item removed from the Hotel was the bed linen. Everything else remained in situ, even the bottles in the Bar. Nothing was damaged in the move and there were no signs of any stress (cracks in plaster, doors jamming,etc.) whatsoever.
Motive power for the move was a series of Hydraulic Rams
. Collectively these were capable of providing a push of 160 tonnes. In the event only 8 tonnes of push were required to get the building rolling. Each of the two moves was accomplished in one day, at a maximum speed of 12 metres per hour. Between the first move and the second, a period of two weeks was required to turn the 96 railway bogies used through 90 degrees. Each bogie had 4 wheels, so the point loading through each wheel was less than 10 tonnes.
At the time of moving the building was only 15 years old. Although comparatively new, the Hotel was to have been demolished to make way for the much larger structure of the National Museum. Chris Parkin, the entrepreneur who undertook the project was later awarded the title of Wellingtonian of the Year.
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. It is one of the largest buildings to have been moved from one site to another.
Weighing an estimated 3500 tonnes, this reinforced concrete building was moved from its original site, now the location of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is the national museum and art gallery of New Zealand, located in Wellington. It is branded and commonly known as Te Papa and Our Place; "Te Papa Tongarewa" is broadly translatable as "the place of treasures of this land".The museum's principles...
to a site some 180 metres down and across a major road.
The relocation started in May 1993 and was completed just over five months later. In a remarkable feat of engineering, the building was turned into a railway carriage, and wheeled on 8 sets of parallel rails 100 metres alongside a busy road. The wheels were then turned 90 degrees, and the building pushed across the road on another set of rails to a point where it was joined to new foundations, and recommenced operation as a Hotel.
During this process, the only item removed from the Hotel was the bed linen. Everything else remained in situ, even the bottles in the Bar. Nothing was damaged in the move and there were no signs of any stress (cracks in plaster, doors jamming,etc.) whatsoever.
Motive power for the move was a series of Hydraulic Rams
Hydraulic ram
A hydraulic ram, or hydram, is a cyclic water pump powered by hydropower. It functions as a hydraulic transformer that takes in water at one "hydraulic head" and flow-rate, and outputs water at a higher hydraulic-head and lower flow-rate...
. Collectively these were capable of providing a push of 160 tonnes. In the event only 8 tonnes of push were required to get the building rolling. Each of the two moves was accomplished in one day, at a maximum speed of 12 metres per hour. Between the first move and the second, a period of two weeks was required to turn the 96 railway bogies used through 90 degrees. Each bogie had 4 wheels, so the point loading through each wheel was less than 10 tonnes.
At the time of moving the building was only 15 years old. Although comparatively new, the Hotel was to have been demolished to make way for the much larger structure of the National Museum. Chris Parkin, the entrepreneur who undertook the project was later awarded the title of Wellingtonian of the Year.