Burst pipe causes chaos

A burst major water main in Napier yesterday caused extensive flooding, left a nearby bar and cinema without water and led to a Unison truck collapsing into the hole it created.

It also led to a major headache for Napier City Council engineering crews who were quickly on the scene at the corner of Station and Munroe Streets, just after 3pm.

"Very frustrating," a visibly angry council chief executive Neil Taylor said as he and council staff began to assess the damage which appeared to have been caused by a Unison crew's drilling programme, under the road, for its high-speed network cabling.

"They have been drilling under the intersection and it looks like they have struck a pipe," Mr Taylor said.

"And it's not a small water pipe, it's a major one."

The pressured water exploded out of the ground at the same time a Unison truck, carrying soil from the drilling point about 25m away, was passing over it.

It's rear left wheel collapsed into the hole as water quickly flooded the area, and a heavy lift mobile crane was called in to remove it.

Police began diverting traffic from what one of the first council workers on the scene described as a lake.

Mr Taylor said he was angry at the inconvenience the incident had caused for businesses in the immediate area, and said information about water pipe systems, and the levels they ran at, were available.

"If you don't know where they are - ask," he said.

He described the incident as a "miscalculation that has caused so much grief".

Unison spokesman Danny Gough said there would be a full debriefing of the incident this morning involving all those involved at the drilling site.

"We hit a pipe, no doubt about that," Mr Gough said.

"Our first response was to assist the best we could, and we were fully appreciative of the help the council gave us.

"We realise it was a huge issue and the impact it had on people."

One of those people was Reading Cinemas manager Nicole Speakman.

"It's the school holidays. I had fully booked screenings tonight," she said from the scene just after 3.15pm when the first crews of council water engineers began turning off nearby hydrants to stem the flow.

She said there was no water for the cinema's toilets or washing-up facilities.

The neighbouring Underground Bar was also left without water.

Re-routing of water systems in the immediate area was expected to have supply returned by 8pm, although the cinema had to cancel its 5pm screenings.

Mr Taylor said the main issue was ensuring there was a supply available for firefighting and that had been sorted through contacting the service to advise which nearby hydrants remained operational.

Initial indications showed there would need to be major excavation of the area around the puncture to replace the damaged pipe, he said.