Historic stormwater issues continue to plague certain roads in and around Wanaka but one of the most problematic along a busy arterial road has been largely resolved.

Council engineers designed and constructed a larger, deeper soak pit at the edge of Aubrey Road, near Mt Ida Place, in November last year and Wanaka councillor Quentin Smith said it has been very effective at resolving the ongoing problem of flooding at that point on the road.

The remedial work has “either completely addressed the issue or at least limited [it] to extreme events,” he said.  

He also said, though, that other stormwater issues on Wanaka’s roads, which have remained unresolved for years, are frustrating.

Last year Quentin told the Wanaka App that sites, such as at the corner of the busy Anderson and Aubrey roads which floods regularly with only a modicum of rain, have been the recipient of “dozens of requests” for service over a long period of time.

“[It’s] something of a frustration to me,” he said “It’s not acceptable that it floods regularly… [but] we are moving to address that.”  

Last Tuesday morning’s rain caused flooding at the corner of Aubrey and Anderson roads once again.

In March 2019, the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) advised that design and engineering firm WSP Opus had conducted a review of the site and its report highlighted that a more substantial infrastructure project would be needed to resolve the flooding.

Quentin said it was likely that the drainage fix in this location will require piping into the downstream stormwater system that ultimately comes out at Bremner Bay.  

“The cost of this work is of a quantum that is beyond just minor improvements and requires significant design work. This is being prioritised in the coming LTP [Long Term Plan] and short term improvements are being investigated that may help in the meantime,” he said.  

Yesterday (Thursday February 11) QLDC communications advisor Jack Barlow confirmed the proposed solution to help address the flooding issues at this site was “to revisit the existing soak pits and rebuild or replace them” and design work was currently underway. 

“This is part of a larger scope of works that are proposed to address flooding issues on Anderson Road and Kelly’s Flat,” he said.

“We expect the programme of works to be ready around July/August this year.”

“In the interim, the existing soakage fields have been checked for functionality, with particular attention paid to the sumps that feed the soakage field.”

Almost $13M was budgeted in last year’s annual plan (FY2019/20) for spending on stormwater across the QLDC district.

PHOTOS: Wanaka App