Wellington Water forges ahead month of overnight works on Holloway Rd despite opposition

Residents of one of Wellington's oldest streets say they're frustrated Wellington Water has forged ahead with nearly a month's worth of night time works despite their objections.

Monday night was the first of just over three weeks where Wellington Water would close off access to Holloway Road from 7pm to 5am to replace a wastewater pipe.

Last week locals, the city council and Wellington Water staff held a heated meeting after residents were given less than two weeks' notice of the work.

The water supplier has told residents there would be noise and vibration stemming from the work, although higher noise activities - such as concrete cutting - would be curtailed to end by 11pm.

The road was a small, dead end street at the bottom of a steeply walled gully, lined by homes either directly alongside the road's single pavement or just a short way up the bank above the road.

'My way or the highway' - resident on Wellington Water

Resident Malcolm Frazer said since the notification he had received no response from Wellington Water over his concerns about noise and his request for assistance to find alternative accommodation during the project.

"The communication from Wellington Water is unbelievable. Their attitude seems to be really arrogant - it's my way or the highway - I don't think you could make something more frustrating in the way that they've done it," Frazer said.

Residents advocated for the work to be carried out during the day, but on Monday Wellington Water confirmed the works would happen at night.

A spokesperson for the water supplier said the night works balanced reducing the impact on residents, minimising safety risks for workers and the community and delivering value for ratepayers.

"A shift to daytime works with road access maintained could potentially cause the project to take twice as long, and increase costs. The replacement of the 100-year-old pipe on Holloway Rd is part of the wider Aro Valley programme. It is a significant piece of work, budgeted at over $1 million," a spokesperson said.

They said contractors would use acoustic blankets to reduce the noise of certain equipment in the area, and would monitor noise levels as the project went ahead.

The spokesperson encouraged residents to contact Wellington City Council if they believed noise levels were excessive.

On Monday night, from his home up a small flight of steps, Holloway Road resident of nearly 35 years Andrew Campbell said he didn't think Wellington Water had properly taken into account the confined nature of the street when it decided to conduct the work at night.

"Students when they come into the valley, they don't understand the valley. Because they will be talking about their dope deals two or three doors down the road and they don't understand how their conversation echoes up the road," Campbell said.

Campbell said the area had a long history of social activism and strange occurrences and he suspected workers might want to prepare themselves for some unexpected interruptions from the locals.

"I thought maybe we could have some fun with this. Not hurt the workers in any way but just give them some entertainment. [The street] is a legendary spooky feel. A little bit of witchy stuff going on.

"The work has to go on. Hopefully the workers will be entertained by the crazy stuff that goes on. But keep them a little bit 'this is a weird place, this is a weird street' and keep the legend of Holloway Road going," Campbell said.

Notice of works 'a foregone conclusion'

On Monday night contractors and Wellington Water staff took shelter from the rain underneath the veranda of Derek Thunders' home which extended out over the pavement.

"I can hear everything they're saying. In fact when you turned up I was like 'here's [RNZ]'," Thunders said.

He said the initial notification from Wellington Water came with such short notice it was hard to imagine any change in the Wellington Water's plans to do the work during the night time.

"At the meeting it was a foregone conclusion as far as I'm concerned from the way the Wellington Water dude was talking," Thunders said.

Locals don't want to end up like Island Bay

Down on the street Therese McCrea was making her way home through the work site.

She said she would have preferred the work to happen during the day - or finish earlier - but she agreed with the need to get the pipes restored.

McCrea said - before coming to live in the city - she was aware of the capital's reputation for the poor state of the city's water infrastructure.

"I have been quite horrified at the state of the water. I used to hear about the flooding. I used to hear about the burst mains and oh my goodness some of the things I've seen in the city and the Newtown area has horrified me.

"[The work] has to happen and we want it to happen, the locals up here we don't want it to end up like Island Bay," McCrea said.

Residents deserve more information - Councillor Geordie Rogers

Councillor for Pukehīnau/Lambton Ward, Geordie Rogers said he'd tried "multiple times" to get Wellington Water to consider conducting their work during the day.

"I think it's really important that when we are doing these construction projects we are thinking about the people who are living nearby. So many of those people have said they are going to have problems sleeping and I am not confident that the issues raised have been fully addressed so far," Rogers said.

He said residents deserved more information as to when and where on the street noisy works would be taking place.

"Unfortunately it is a little too late to go back over the past for the residents - with night works starting - but my priority now is making sure that while the works are going ahead Wellington Water is communicating as often as possible with any changes and when residents can expect disruption," Rogers said.

Rogers said he hoped Wellington Water's transition into the Tiaki Wai water entity in July would be an opportunity for a reset on community engagement around water infrastructure projects in the region.

"We do need to have a look at how we engage over approval of night works - particularly for our non-emergency works - not just taking into account the view of engineers who look over these things but also residents who do have some of that more long lived knowledge and might be able to raise some of these concerns earlier on instead of at the last minute when the notice of works are put out.

"What has been missing is some of that engagement prior to deciding what the works will be. To make sure they are something that's going to work for the community," Rogers said.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.