After 11 years of only housing pigeons, the Christ Church Cathedral is inching closer to a major milestone.
The stabilisation is expected to be completed in February which will make the church safe enough for construction to get underway inside.
Piece by piece, the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral is happening, the hoarding has been taken away.
"There's no longer that enclave of 'don't look in there it looks pretty horrible'. I want people to see that there is a lot of constructive action going on in there, there are no secrets in there," Christ Church Cathedral project director Keith Paterson said.
Remote-controlled diggers were used instead of people to clear out 274 tonnes of material and artefacts as well as pigeon guano.
The building is significantly safer than it was two years ago and as tradies wind down for the year, a major milestone in the mammoth project is nearing.
"We will soon be able to work inside the cathedral like any other site in New Zealand and [with] things going well that will be around February next year," Paterson said.
The cathedral isn't the only signal of post-quake progress across the Square - Te Pae opened this year.
After more than a decade the 136-year-old Sargood Son and Ewen building had its shipping containers removed on Sunday.
"We're all really really excited, I think the whole neighbourhood is excited to open up the road again," a Christchurch resident told Newshub.
"There won't be many shipping containers or road cones around the city anymore. Those days are behind us. Now we really feel like a city that still has some growing to do, but essentially we feel like we are well on our way to being whole again," Christchurch City Councillor Jake McLellan said.
The long-awaited Parakiore Recreation and Sports Centre and the Te Kaha Stadium are both on track for significant progress in 2023 as well.
