Asset Assessment

The asset assessment team faced a daunting – and often confronting – task to uncover the hidden depths and coarse layers of damage caused by multiple quakes rolling across Christchurch, leaving behind the shattered horizontal infrastructure.

Tools of the trade were redesigned and redefined as SCIRT grappled with the massive task of post-earthquake asset assessment.

Broken pipes, slumps in the street, jagged edges and battered bridges were among the hazards splayed across the damaged landscape of the former “garden city”.

In all, $140 million would be spent on assessing the damage.

Differential settlement and lateral spreading created a new cityscape, smothering drains and waterways. Repair and replacement work on wastewater and storm water pipes would take up much of the overall rebuild cost. Horizontal work would have to be completed before vertical projects could get under way. About 1600 kilometres of council-owned gravity pipelines made up the Christchurch wastewater network – with sections dating back to the 1880s – while about 900km of gravity pipelines united the storm water network.

For additional detail, please also see https://scirtlearninglegacy.org.nz/story/pipe-damage-assessment-tool-pdat and https://scirtlearninglegacy.org.nz/story/pipe-profilometer-and-design-gu….

Glossary terms:

• Infrastructure Recovery Technical Standards and Guidelines (IRTSG)
• Geographic Information System (GIS) Viewer
• Pipe Damage Assessment Tool (PDAT)
• pole camera (polecam)
• closed-circuit television (CCTV)

Tags:Assessmentassetstorm waterwastewaterdamage