The Auckland War Memorial Museum has been closed to the public for more than a week. File photo. Photo: 123RF
The Auckland War Memorial Museum is hoping to open part of the building within days, as it loses thousands of dollars daily after being forced to close because of an asbestos scare.
The museum has been closed since 10 May, after asbestos dust was found in Te Marae Ātea Māori Court and the Pacific Galleries.
It was then discovered in the Grand Foyer - a major evacuation route for the building. The museum has been waiting on Fire and Emergency to review and approve an alternative exit before it can reopen.
The museum usually collects more than $2500 a day, with international adult visitors paying a $32 entry fee.
Auckland Museum chief executive David Reeves told Checkpoint a contamination report had been received today.
"It's a comprehensive look at what we are dealing with, which is samples of more than 500 sites across the complex museum building, and gives us the raw material for a proper clean up plan."
He said he was hopeful this would lead to a staged reopening of the museum, "hopefully in a short number of days or weeks".
Reeves said the contamination did not look too bad. "But any contamination must be dealt with seriously, so hoping a clean up plan will be pretty straightforward."
The museum has been conducting nearly 200 air monitoring tests day and night since becoming aware of the issue and Reeves said all the sites were all within the legal threshold for safe occupancy.
He said museum staff would go over the new report in the next day or two, and work with a licensed asbestos removalist to find out how long it was going to take.
"We really want to get our wonderful museum back open to the public, and we are working as quickly as we can to do that."
The museum still needs the alternative evacuation route signed off by Fire and Emergency to avoid people going through the exclusion zone.
Reeves said Fire and Emergency "understand the urgency of the situation".
The museum employs about 300 staff, with many now working from an off-site office in Newmarket, while a small number of staff are still in the main museum to do the planning for the removal and provide security.
Reeves said all staff were still occupied with training schemes and other tasks.
"Nobody is getting a holiday or a break, we're busy."
But he said the museum staff understood the frustration from the public.
"It frustrates all the staff that we're not able to open the doors and do the job that we love doing. We are working as quickly as we can, but we must do it methodically, we must do it safely, I really don't want to rush this and open and find that we've tripped up and have to close again."
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