Dudley Creek flood relief work ends

Press, 31 August 1989, Page 7

Dudley Creek flood relief work ends

By

JANE DUNBAR

A $4 million Christchurch Drainage Board project to ease flooding problems has been completed just weeks before the board goes out of existence. The Drainage Board’s chief engineer, Mr Peter Hunt, said he was pleased that work on the Dudley Creek diversion had been finished before the board disappeared in local body reorganisation. Flooding in St Albans and in market gardens around Cranford Street should become a thing of the past. Dudley Creek, which flows from Bishopdale through Papanui and St Albans, has caused severe flooding during the last two decades. The board raised a $2 million loan in 1975 and began work on the first part of its plan to divert water away from the creek to reduce the risk of flooding. Growing development in the north of the city led to increased water run-off in

the creek, thus worsening' the problem; Stage one was completed by the end of the 19705, and planning began for the second stage. Work began in 1988 and was completed this month at a cost of at least another $2 million.

Water will still be able to flow along Dudley Creek, but at times of heavy rain the flood water will be diverted. It will flow down a new channel away from St Albans across Cranford Street, to Burwood’s Horseshoe Lake and into the Avon River at New Brighton Road.

Pumping stations along the way will give the water the extra push it needs to make the distance. Christchurch is so flat the water would not be able to drain to the river naturally. The Drainage Board will go out of existence in October when its functions are taken over by the new Christchurch City Council.