Burst pipes in Wellington: Council wants extra funding to assess network

Crews responding to a burst watermain on Aro St on Thursday. Photo / Jack Crossland

Wellington City Council has applied for extra funding to assess the state of the city's pipe network after two burst pipes within three days in the capital.

On Thursday a burst watermain flooded parts of Aro St, causing residents to lay down sandbags to redirect water from their garages.

Update 4.40pm re: 195 Aro Street. Crews are onsite and have isolated the broken main. There is no loss of service to customers within the catchment area. Traffic management is being put in place to make it safe, then the team will make the repairs.

— Wellington Water (@WgtnWaterOutage) January 28, 2021

Days earlier a burst wastewater pipe in the central city sent sewage on to the street, with residents urged not to flush the toilet unless "essential" while authorities scrambled to isolate the leak.

The pipe, on the corner of Victoria and Mercer St, was built in the early 1900s.

The sucker trucks were able to keep up with demand during the evening and there has been no overflow or discharge into the harbour. There are additional sucker trucks on site to help with peak demand to prevent overflows into the harbour. https://t.co/H0wHsWCWVA

— Wellington Water (@WgtnWaterOutage) January 25, 2021

Wellington City Mayor Andy Foster said the council had applied for extra funding from central government, for what was known as a "conditioning assessment".

"That will help build a much better picture of what the state of the network is and where we need to target for renewal."

"The first concern is making sure we understand the state of it – that's why we have looked to the extra funding for the conditioning assessment."

"And then that will be followed up by extra funding to actually do the renewal work."

There was no timeline yet for when the network would be assessed, he said, with the council meeting with Wellington Water next week.

Yesterday's burst water pipe caused water to gush from under the road at 195 Aro St, with water and rocks sprayed across the street.

Wellington Water reported crews were on site by 4.30pm and had isolated the broken main with no loss of service to customers within the catchment area.

Here we go again....Aro Valley Road this time pic.twitter.com/fXCc0fqKmP

— Andrew Perry (@AndrewPerryNZ) January 28, 2021