Christchurch Takes on Sewer Rebuilding Efforts

On 22^nd February 2011, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch, causing massive damage to city buildings, underground water and waste services, roads, parks and facilities. The earthquake was centred 2 km west of Lyttelton, and its violent shaking brought down buildings across the city and claimed the lives of 182 people. This earthquake happened six months after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in September 2010. That event also resulted in significant damage to city buildings and infrastructure, but mercifully no lives were lost. Damage to the wastewater infrastructure was extensive, impacting more than 300km of the 1600km of pipe in the network. Damage includes cracks, collapses, joint breakage, and loss of gradient - all causing significant environmental impacts.

David Heiler, Asset Assessment Engineer for SCIRT said they are filming kilometres of gravity wastewater and stormwater pipe every day, and need superior analytical tools to schedule inspections, analyse pipe condition defects and grade issues, and help prioritise repairs within the network. InfoNet performs these asset assessment functions well and is being used to store all pipe assessment data collected during the rebuild.