Joseph Barratt followed his nose to get to the bottom of a whiffy problem in Parnell.
he story was right under our noses and it was hard not to simply turn - and run - away. Human excrement running down the streets of one of Auckland's more expensive suburbs.
It started in November last year when a Cheshire St developer inadvertently broke a sewer pipe and then filled the lines with concrete.
That's a tricky problem to fix, considering that two manholes and five sewer lines 12m to 14m underground had concrete in them.
The Aucklander revealed the problem in April this year after noticing the lingering smell and oversized pumps, in containers on the footpaths, noisily pushing Parnell's waste elsewhere.
Meanwhile, residents and business proprietors had been wondering about the smell and the flooding from the pipes. One even talked of stepping over overflowing human waste while walking down Parnell Rise.
Council-controlled utility company Metrowater originally estimated repairs would cost $500,000 to $1 million. This figure was revised to $2 million in a follow-up story.
However, Linda Danen, head of strategy and marketing at Metrowater, says those estimates were based on the use of a specialist drilling machine. The device didn't work because of the "uneven contour of the wastewater pipes''.
The cost has now ballooned to $3 million as new pipes are being laid - in hand-tunnelled trenches because of the ground conditions and the depth of the work.
DJ Eves is one of the workers hand-tunnelling the new lines more than 10m underground.
"Yeah, it's hard, that's for sure,'' says Mr Eves who, each day, wheelbarrows loads of excavated clay along a 1.6m-high and 1.4m-wide route to remove it. Difficult working
conditions have also pushed back the December finishing date. The job is now expected to finish by February.
Project manager John Twentyman says the focus is on safety because of the depth of the working site.
"It's a day digging it out and the next half is securing the walls so it doesn't cave in.''
The work follows the tried and true methods miners used in the past - minus the canary, laughs Mr Twentyman.
There is still no decision on whether the developer will be forced to pay for the corrective work as Ms Danen says liability issues are still being worked through.
But, for residents and businesses in Parnell, the main problem is over, on the surface at least. The sickly smell of excrement coming out of overloaded pipes has been temporarily fixed until the new pipes are completed.
Sniffing out problem
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