On Monday 3rd February 2025 Wellington Water and their Traffic Management partners carried out another water pipe leakage repair on Cologne Street between Cambridge and Broadway, as is happening all over town on a daily basis.
The location of the leak is the 5th or 6th time Wellington Water has carried out a repair at the same spot. The last time they carried out a repair there a neighbour pointed out to the crew that this was about the 5th time they have completed the repair in
the same place; the response was: “we will do it right this time.”
I remember this particular day because when I looked out mid-morning all 5 or 6 staff were on their cell phones at the same time; it must have been smoko.
Anyway today 3rd February 2025 there were 3 Wellington Water trucks, 1 digger, 3 staff, the traffic Management firm had 1 truck with 3 staff , there were sets of traffic lights at each end of the street, 60 plus cones, laned areas with yellow and black poles between the cones, speed restriction signs plus the ubiquitous young controller and the 2 burly lads in the truck doing whatever.
I also find it strange that this excess of staff and equipment seems either time or resource dependent, I have as have others seen the same type of job being completed with a fraction of the staff and resources i.e. not overkill as on this day.
What a circus. As a ratepayer I would like to know why at this one spot there are constant water leaks in the same repaired area.
Do the people carrying out these repairs know what they are doing, who project manages them, who checks their work, how much have these repairs cost the community.The service can’t be value for money.
I can imagine the reply would be we are governed by legislation when it comes to traffic management and we went back 6 times because a different piece of pipe in that 3 meter wide section of road burst each time.
Someone at SWDC needs to step up and get us a better deal.
I know this is happening everywhere in NZ but that’s no excuse – the original legislation controlling Traffic Management plans and STMS controllers was intended for medium to major road construction works not tin pot jobs like water leaks. I raised
this with Kieran McAnulty and Mike Butterick, they are both aware it is a big issue, there should be legislative change.
