As street opens to traffic.
Following the collapse of the Hobart Rivulet last week, which flooded the city’s Myer CBD store, Liverpool Street is open to traffic today but Murray Street, between Liverpool and Collins streets, remains closed. Hutchinson Builders will meet with Myer executives today to discuss a timeline to re-open the Myer store.
Builders were able to stop water from entering the store on Saturday with the help of a pump truck. “The existing pumps within the Myer building will be acting on their own, albeit on temporary power. There will be no need for vacuum pumps that are on the street at the moment, so that’s good news,” Mick Connolly from Hutchinson Builders told the ABC.
A Myer spokesperson told Appliance Retailer, “There has been damage caused to the store basement. The store will remain closed as we work with our landlord and engineers to fix this as quickly as possible. It will remain closed until it is safe to re-open.”
Hobart Myer general manager Peter Monachetti described the closure to local media as “soul destroying” for staff and the community, which had supported the store that reopened in Hobart only eight months ago after the original building was destroyed by fire in 2007.
“What we are doing now is looking after our team, their safety and their welfare. We just hope that we will be closed for a much shorter time,” he said.
Myer is working with Kalis Group, Hutchinson Builders and the Hobart City Council, responsible for the rivulet to understand the cause of how the water escaped from the rivulet.