Digger falls into hole left by burst Adelaide water main on arterial road at Prospect 20 May 2016 – The Pulse NewsCorp Blog
This year I have noticed these headlines just keep on – can anybody find a timeline of all these water main bursts?
I am just amazed that a water utility can “unlearn” basic engineering good practice established over more than 150 years.
Today – 8 May 2016 – 19 Mar 2016
Warwick,
they can ‘unlearn’ rapidly if there is no money for maintenance and no money for repairs or replacements. The State is broke and circuses have priority. Most of the main pipes are approaching 100 years old, and they are patched, not replaced when they fail. I have seen no sign of the sleeve insertion used in eastern States or in Europe.
Having said that, the saga of up-grading the water main up the Onkaparinga Valley continues. The main runs (oh so conveniently) under the main (and in practice only) road and has been worked on for over 2 years. The first action was to replace about 1 km. before they ran out of money. After notices about road delays for 6 weeks they started after they were supposed to have finished and continued for 4 months.
The second bout came further up the road with the maximum inconvenience for 2 months. The third bout was to replace the first lot of pipe as it was sub-standard.
The fourth lot is going on right now. There are 3 sections being ‘worked on’ at a leisurely pace, with a giant pit being dug for reasons unexplained except that it adds considerably to the travel time. One of the diversions has finished??? but replaced by work on a round about. So much for Balhannah & Woodside. Meanwhile Lobethal main street is being dug up for a second time, but in a slightly different position. Reasons not given (possibly from embarrassment).
In Adelaide itself the claim is that it is less of a problem than last year, a great consolation if your street has flooded 3 times in a month. The recent publicity is due to a series of spectacular failures in the City Centre. People notice that.
The reason is the diversion of money to the “bread and circuses” State government and the neglect of infrastructure over the last 14 years.
Still more burst water mains on the commercial TV news every night.
My e-mail is refusing to work (again). Checked west parklands and no activity. Possibly all staff busy stockpiling bottles of water.
Searching for – burst – at this ABC Adelaide Local page brings up two events in 2012!!! But I do not see any recent stories – maybe ABC covering up for SA Labor mates.
www.abc.net.au/adelaide/news/
So these water pipe failures have been going on for at least 4 years.
1. Burst water main destroys road in Blackwood – ABC Adelaide – Australian Broadcasting Corporation – ABC Adelaide (17 Apr 2012)
Hills residents will be left without the use of one of their main access roads to the city for most of the day as crews work to repair the damage caused by a burst water main on Main Road near the Glenalta Railway Station and Bus Stop 28.
2. Burst water main causes Grenfell Street gridlock – ABC Adelaide – Australian Broadcasting Corporation – ABC Adelaide (23 Jul 2012)
A damaged water main has torn open a large hole in Grenfell Street this morning, with traffic congestion caused by the repairs expected to last for most of the day.
Warwick:
Worth it for the pictures. Hunter is Minister carrying the can.
www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/hundreds-more-burst-water-mains-across-adelaide-water-minister-ian-hunter-says/news-story/4d9e28ef512ec017e5b5d37382e45a06
Mr Hunter told Parliament that SA Water was “at the top of the tree” when it came to limiting bursts per 100km of water pipe – recording an average of 19.
He released figures showing there were 3825 water main bursts or breaks across SA last financial year, up from 3091 in the previous 12 months.
The number of bursts a year had remained stable for 15 years, at about 4000, he said.