Interislander base flooded in Wellington

Wednesday, 17 July 2019

Fire and Emergency crews pumped away flooding at Wellington's Interislander departure terminal.

Fire crews are pumping away flooding outside the Interislander departure terminal in Wellington.

A Fire and Emergency shift manager said they were called at 6.45am on Wednesday to help assist with the flooding.

Sailings were unaffected by the burst water pipe but flooding nearly passed the doors of the Interislander ferry terminal carpark, Wellington.

'We don't know whether there's any damage, that's for Interislander to figure out once we get rid of the water,' he said.

According to Interislander's website, the Kaiarahi ferry scheduled to leave at 9am is estimated to depart on time. Though its vehicle loading has been postponed to 8.52am.

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Fire and Emergency workers were using ejector pumps to redirect water into stormwater drains.

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A KiwiRail spokeswoman confirmed sailings were not affected and the flooding, outside the terminal, was 'superficial'.

Fire & Emergency assistant area commander Brendan Woods said when he first arrived at the scene, shortly after 7am, water level had nearly reached the doors of the terminal check-in building.

Fire & Emergency workers on site were using 'ejector pumps' to redirect the flooded water into a stormwater drain.

Woods said the pipe that had broken was a 100mm asbestos water main underneath the tarmac of the entrance to the ferry terminal.

Port Authority facilities plumber Rob Bowen said repairs to get to the pipe, about a metre underground, would involve digging up the area in front of the terminal entrance way.

He said the heavy vehicles driving over the tarmac and the vibrations from the overhead motorway could have contributed to the pipe break.

Sunday's rainfall could have also put pressure on the infrastructure, he said.

Passengers aboard a Bluebridge ferry on Tuesday endured 18 hours aboard a ferry heading to Picton from Wellington.

The ship, Strait Feronia hit the dock in Picton about 1am on Tuesday trying to berth in windy conditions, damaging the floating linkspan used to get vehicles and passengers off the ferry.

Those without vehicles were able to get off the ferry but those with them had to return to Wellington.

The ferry, which left Wellington at 9pm on Monday, returned to the capital and docked at 3pm Tuesday.