Ballarat’s council is reassuring the public a Civic Hall palm tree which collapsed only 24 hours after it was planted is now safe.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
An independent structural engineer and WorkSafe have inspected the three palms, which were planted on Thursday, before the tallest tree fell over on Friday.
City of Ballarat director of infrastructure and environment Terry Demeo said time lapse photography and an engineering review revealed that inadequate soil mass within the root structure “resulted in an instability”.
“As a result of this, it appears the cables and ground anchors were subjected to excessively high loads and one of the anchors failed, resulting in the collapse,” he said.
He said initial transport for the palms was $16,000 with VicRoads meeting a portion of those costs.
Council paid around $20,000 to put the three trees in the ground on Thursday.
Further crane hire on Saturday to re-erect the fallen tree and re-enforce the two other palms is expected to cost between $15,000 and $20,000.