Talks with City Link companies have proved fruitless. Some cracks in internal and external walls of the Punt Road property are up to three metres long and nearly three centimetres wide. Crestall Nominees Pty Ltd, the owner of the building, lodged writs in the Supreme Court yesterday against several companies involved in the City Link project, including the tollway's owner, Transurban, and the two companies building the road, Transfield Pty Ltd and the Obayashi Corporation. He said that since work began on the City Link tunnels, the property looked like it had been damaged by an earthquake and was rapidly sinking. Part of Punt Road in front of the property had also started to sink about 12 months ago, he said.
Some cracks are large enough for a person to put their hand through.
Mr Genser said the property was renovated four years ago but the cracks, which were first noticed in May 1998, were widening at an average rate of two millimetres a month. For safety reasons the property will be propped up next week. Mr Genser said the building would have to be demolished and rebuilt, with the cost running into millions of dollars. Transurban yesterday released a statement saying the matter was related to construction and was therefore to be resolved by the Transfield-Obayashi Joint Venture which is building City Link. But TOJV said it had not been given any evidence to show the cracking had occurred as a result of work on the tunnels.