Cunning Plan Number Two

Next, something from the Earthquake.

Underground Services

One of the most disruptive and long-lasting results from an earthquake is the damage to underground services. Sewer, water, even phone and power.

The pipes we have underground are strong enough to last for many years, sometimes decades. However, they are not strong enough to sustain an earthquake. They are too brittle, and do not bend when the earth bends, do not move when the earth moves.

Solutions:

1.      I guess we could “earthquake-proof” the ground, so that it won’t move. Does that work? Up to a point, perhaps, but at what cost? Will it sustain the sort of sideways movement we experienced in February? Possibly not.

2.      A radical approach would be to move all of these services above ground. Pipes everywhere! The look would be very industrial, which could be very funky and modern, or could be very grungy and depressing. Hardly a universal solution.

3.      Now for the most practical in my view.

Many parts of the city will need to be rebuilt from the ground up, so lets start a little deeper.

·     All sewer lines head from the city toward Bromley.

·     All water lines head to the city from the reservoirs.

·     All power and phone lines criss-cross the city to cover all areas.

The result is a network of underground services with an unimaginable number of places that earth movement can break a line.

My idea is to create an underground grid of service tunnels or conduits.

These can be built as major arterial tunnels first. Neighbourhood services would be connected to these conduits, and over time the tunnels would spread further into these neighbourhoods.

·        The straight sections could be concrete or steel. These are large pipes where servicemen can walk upright. 
·        Imagine shipping containers welded end to end and laid underground beneath the road.

·        At regular intervals, there need to be access hatches, for servicemen to enter.

·        Inside the conduit, all service pipes run along the walls. Sewer, water, phone, data, power. Everything. All one above the other, and all accessible to their respective servicemen.

·        Because all cabling and pipes are “open-air” inside the conduit, they can be made of a flexible material, giving them the opportunity to flex with movement, and survive considerable earth movement outside the tunnel. Unlike with buried cables, even major earth movements will have virtually no impact.

An obvious difficulty with burying something large underground is the water table in Christchurch, but this does not need to be unsurmountable. I am sure that engineers are capable of finding good solutions to any challenges here.


As the central city is being virtually rebuilt, this is a good place to start this tunnel system. Obviously, there is also an opportunity to start in the eastern suburbs as well. Over time, these two systems can be joined as the network is spread into the other suburbs.