No deal yet over cost of pipe work

The Marlborough District Council will sit down with ministry officials next month to thrash out a money-back deal as it continues to repair and replace 20 kilometres of earthquake-damaged sewerage pipes.

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management has agreed in principal to fund eligible works from the council’s first round of repairs but needs further evidence before committing to a figure. Meanwhile, the council has settled an insurance claim of $1.7 million to help repair the damaged earthenware pipes, installed in the 1930s.

Council operations and maintenance engineer Stephen Rooney said while he thought all pipes with severe damage would be eligible for funding, the council still had to complete assessments and lodge claims to the ministry.

The ministry would only provide funds should earthquake damage to the pipelines exceed the set damage threshold, Rooney said.

Council chief financial officer Martin Fletcher said the council had to provide evidence of the damage to the ministry, which involved supplying damage assessments, video footage and an estimated repair cost.

The council had attended several meetings with the ministry since the 2016 Kaiko¯ura earthquake and the meetings would continue until a settlement was made, Fletcher said. ‘‘We hope to get a fair settlement value from the Ministry of Civil Defence, and reduce the burden on ratepayers in the process.’’

Costs not covered by insurers or the ministry would be funded by the council’s reserves and would not affect rates, he said.

The council had earmarked about $12.6m to repair all earthenware sewerage pipes in Blenheim and Picton during the next decade, Rooney said.

This figure was set to be refined during the 2020-21 annual plan, and did not include funding from the ministry or insurers.

More than 2km of the sewerage network, at Park Terrace, Lybster St, High St, Arthur St, Pitchell St, Henry St, Grove Rd and Hutcheson St, had so far been relined with polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, at a cost of $1.5m. Work will now focus on relining some of the pipes that connected to properties in Blenheim.

A trench will be dug along Third Ln, in Blenheim, so the earthenware system can be replaced, not relined.

Pipe replacements had been delayed along Third Ln as the council was not sure what the foundations of the buildings were like, Rooney said.

‘‘We had to dig some holes to figure that out. We don’t want to undermine the foundations and their stability when we are digging trenches to repair the pipes,’’ he said.

Further down the track, the council will replace all remaining earthenware pipelines in Blenheim and Picton, to prevent the network breaking in future, as part of a 10-year plan.