Auckland stormwater pipes at risk of collapse

[Newtown-Fella]

now wonder who we blame for this .....

guess Auckland wil be demanding the rest of NZ bail them out to fix the mess .....

Hundreds of kilometres of Auckland's ageing stormwater network are not up to scratch and at risk of collapse.

ONE News has obtained council documents and maps showing the strain the system is under.

The pink areas on the map show where a staggering 375km of bad pipes lie underneath Auckland suburbs, in need of priority repair or replacement.

The worst areas are in west Auckland, the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast.

The council plans to fix the pipes slowly over the next 20 years, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

But with winter coming, officials admit pipes could collapse under the pressure of wet weather.

"Unfortunately there is always a risk," said Auckland Civil Defence controller Clive Manley.

"If a big event comes along and proves to put a lot of pressure onto the system, there's still a risk to it."

A stormwater pipe collapsed in the west Auckland suburb of Glen Eden in February, flooding homes and flats.

It was 26 years old, but had a lifespan of 30 years.

Manley says there was no indication the pipe was at risk of collapse.

"There was some signs it needed some work on which were programmed," he said.

Work to try and repair it is still far from finished and the council is now hoping it can rush the project through before winter kicks in.

Meanwhile, those living in the water's path are now trying to get compensation.

The council has made an offer of $1000 per flat to replace their belongings, but some residents say they had up to $25,000 in property damage.

To add insult to injury, they say their rent is set to rise by $30 a week.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/auckland-stormwater-pipes-risk-collapse-4894413

http://images.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz_images/news2012/auckland/drainmap.pdf

[ssweetpea]

I am not overly suprised.

The 100 year old pipes have been done in the last 20 years which is why Auckland CBD and Devonport aren't covered in pink.

Birkenhead has had little in the way of inferstructure replacement and they have been working in Birkdale on sewers and water mains for years. Currently a longish stretch of Glenfield Rd from Manuka to Sunset have been narrowed and dug up.

The soil over much of the area dotted with pink is clay. It is not good at draining and sets like concrete and cracks when dry. That is very hard on pipes. Combine that enormous amounts of infill housing with more concrete driveway than lawn or garden and the stormwater runoff is much more than it used to be.

Some of that has been taken care of by insisting that new builds have tanks that collect roof water for laundry and bathroom use. That is a recent innovation however and most of the infill housing pre dates it.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

It's an old news story which has been dredged up yet again, except this time specifically as pertaining to Auckland.

The problem is actually nationwide and has been known about for a long time.

Wellington has a known major problem with the integrity of its OLD stormwater and sewage drains.

As does virtually every town and city in NZ.

[nitpicker1]

As Ssweetp mentions:

enormous amounts of infill housing with more concrete driveway than lawn or garden and the stormwater runoff is much more than it used to be.

UMMMMMmmmm ....


now that the lead component in petrol is phased out and airbore pollution is being reduced, wouldn't it be nice if rainwater tanks and apprpropriate sterilisation filtration units were mandatory for domestic use where a property cannot absorb the free water that falls on it!

Our council told me that the water they (CDC) supply from a local bore as part of our lease is ours once it is delivered to our boundary. I could - if I wished - onsell it to the local imports from town who cannot learn to conserve their rainwater catch.

  Waterwise City ratepayers with their own onsite filtered sterilised collection could conceivably dispose of surplus to their waterwasting neighbours and Water supply costs would be reduced until the next drought.