Source: Radio New Zealand
The Petone railway underpass on a nearly-new $70 million cycleway is thigh-deep in water more than two days after the storm and heavy rain in Wellington.
Surprised cyclists on Wednesday morning entered the 30m-long tunnel under the main Hutt Valley rail line with just their tyres underwater, but ended up with it most of the way up their bike frames – and very wet legs and shoes.
“Holy crap,” said one, “it’s quite deep.”
Alan rode through on his electric bike. RNZ / Phil Pennington
Another, commuter Alan, who went through on his electric bike, submerging the motor and part of the battery, told RNZ he hoped it would not be ruined.
Alan said he had no idea the tunnel was flooded – there were no warning signs either on Wednesday or Tuesday at the well-used underpass, though the water could be spotted from above.
“I was like OK, sweet, I’ll be fine then … I was like holy s***, holy s***, holy s***,” said Alan, laughing.
He then sobered a little. “I hope that didn’t damage my motor,” he said, “I hope it’s going to be fine.”
His jeans were still dry – he’d put his legs up on the bike’s top bar and the motor carried him through.
One cyclist laughed as he rode through the floodwaters. RNZ / Phil Pennington
The cycleway’s two rail underpasses were a particularly expensive part of the 3km path that blew out its budget by almost three times. It will be linked up later this year with the $300m-plus harbour cycleway-cum-seawall through to Ngauranga.
The northern underpass, near Normandale bridge, was dry on Wednesday.
At the Petone underpass, a cyclist heading north got off and turned around.
“It’s brand new,” he said. He had been through the water on Tuesday but expected by Wednesday it would be dry.
“Probably should do a better job than that but I’m sure there’s plenty of people got a lot worse than this.”
Also on Wednesday, political parties were arguing over the latest plan to fix the country’s failing or missing infrastructure, which contained a damning assessment of the shortfall – and recommended less-than-forecast spending on transport.
RNZ / Phil Pennington
The Transport Agency Waka Kotahi fronted the Petone-to-Normandale cycleway build with a little bit of local funding from about 2019-2023.
But it said maintenance was the responsibility of Hutt City Council.
“They are better placed to comment on frequency of flooding there.”
However, the city council told RNZ to ask Wellington Water about the drainage issues.
Wellington Water is in a crisis over Moa Point’s massive infrastructure failure.
“This was a significant weather event, affecting infrastructure across the city and in areas where we have not seen impacts before,” the council said in a brief statement on Wednesday afternoon.
“There is a big clean up happening given the storm damage.
“Council and contractors are focused on prioritising public safety and critical infrastructure.”
RNZ / Phil Pennington
At the underpass, a biker who had made it through the water from the south, heading north, told another heading the other way into the city: “I wouldn’t put your bike through it.”
“Thanks,” came the reply, “we’ve gone this far. We might as well finish it off.”
The second woman cyclist was, like most of the other riders, pretty chill about it.
“I wasn’t expecting this, that’s for sure,” she said, “but you know, it’s a hot day, so it’s quite refreshing.”
RNZ / Phil Pennington
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
