Christchurch earthquake repairs, 2011-2015

On 27 February we were called to Christchurch to help with the earthquake repairs. The first two weeks were spent repairing water mains and then we moved onto repairing sewers once it was ascertained which mains were damaged.

We repaired sewer mains ranging in sizes from 150mm to 1800mm in varying depths from 2.5m to 6m deep. All trenches needed extensive dewatering and shoring. These jobs had to be tackled extremely carefully because of the unstable ground conditions but our experienced team still managed to get through the work very quickly.

No repair was too deep or too difficult to be managed by our capable team. In fact on numerous occasions we were called in to complete jobs that other contractors could not finish.

The repairs ranged from 150mm diameter gravity sewers to 1200mm diameter pumping mains. All required extensive dewatering and bypass pumping, and most were at a depth of between three and six metres. Several of the mains needing repair were under the Heathcote and Avon Rivers. We had over 15 pumps set up as pump stations around the city, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, some of which were still set up four years later.