Wellington road closed until April

Wellington Water has its fingers crossed a third break in the city’s dated infrastructure does not happen any time soon.

Willis St will be closed until April while workers patch up a wastewater pipe which sent wastewater flowing in to the city’s harbour, while also working to transport sludge from Moa Point to the Southern Landfill after wastewater pipes burst.

At a barbecue for workers yesterday, Wellington Water chief executive Colin Crampton said the current situation at Moa Point had not taken any workers from the job in Willis St but they were reaching full capacity.

‘‘We would be struggling if anything else was to happen.’’

Crampton said there were two parts to the fix in Willis St – getting the temporary pipe underground, and then working to get the road functioning again. They would have the black pipe off the road by March 31, at the latest, he said. ‘‘We are very conscious that while that black pipe saves wastewater from going into the harbour in a temporary fashion, it is now inconveniencing businesses and we don’t have the road open. All of our focus and energy is on removing and putting the black pipe ... underground, where it belongs.’’

Yesterday, staff were working on the end of the pipe near Dixon St, he said.

‘‘We are just putting the shoring in the first part of the road, they are about to lay the first bit of pipe.’’

Once the pipe was underground, the Wellington City Council would then need to do work to reopen the road – likely to take until well in to April.

Wellington mayor Andy Foster said the resulting damage to the system was not caused by chronic underfunding. ‘‘We spend about $180 million a year. ‘‘According to our asset management plan that is about the right number. But it will be rising over a period of time and as pipes begin to age.’’ The recent spate of issues had prompted some questioning, Foster said.

‘‘Out of these different incidents there are some extra questions that we have asked Wellington Water, some things that we might learn from them.’’

The monitoring regime and how often certain pipes were inspected may be considered further, he said.

‘‘We want to keep our infrastructure working as best we can.’’