Inspections and maintenance

Our stormwater network is made up of pipes, manholes, pump stations, open waterways, sumps and sump leads, kerb outlets, wetlands, overland flow paths, public soak pits, bridges, culverts and swales. Ponds, private pipes, private soak pits, gutters and down pipes, and storage devices also form part of the wider stormwater network.

Streams and open drains

Council owns and maintains 41 kilometres of open waterways in our district. This maintenance includes:

• inspections and engaging contractors to carry out vegetation removal (using hand and machinery)
• mowing around waterways
• sediment removal.

We need resource consents from Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) to extract gravel and sediments from streambeds. We plan to apply to GWRC for a Global open waterway maintenance consent in 2021/22, to replace the current range of short-term maintenance consents.

Pipes and manholes

Kāpiti is divided into 34 stormwater zones, and we have a systematic programme to inspect all our pipe assets and manholes.

At June 2021, we have assessed the condition of pipes and manholes in 18 zones. The remaining assessments will continue during 2021–41 Long-term Plan period.

The results of these assessment are used to plan our preventive maintenance, including asset renewals, to avoid catastrophic asset failures causing flooding.

We also inspect and clean all stormwater pipe inlets and outlets, including beach outlets on a schedule and after heavy rainfall, to prevent sand build-up that blocks the pipes and could cause flooding.