For years, residents have flagged problems with fountains of brown water, toilet paper and sanitary products pouring out of manhole covers in the street whenever it rained heavily.
Surrey Street Flood Action Group member Julian Doorey said while he was delighted to see the Dunedin City Council (DCC) finally doing something about the issue, he was not yet convinced it would be a solution.
The DCC is about to start a short-term improvement project which involves construction of a new link, connecting existing sewers at the intersection of Surrey St and Macandrew Rd, at the south end of Surrey St.
Dunedin City Council Three Waters network operations manager Neva Vaitupu said the $240,000 project was scheduled to begin next Tuesday and would take about a month to complete.
He said the work would involve excavations at the Surrey St and Macandrew Rd intersection, and along Surrey St, to install a new pipe connecting the two foul sewer lines.
A new manhole would also be added.
Surrey St would be closed April 7-17, followed by the closure of the Surrey St/Macandrew Rd intersection April 20-30.
Temporary traffic management would be in place and affected residents, schools and businesses in the area had been notified, he said.
‘‘Once finished, this link will allow us to better utilise existing capacity in our wastewater network at times of peak flows — helping reduce pressure on the network in the vicinity of Surrey St.’’
Mr Doorey said Surrey St residents ‘‘appreciated’’ anything that was being done to stop the overflows in the street.
However, he pointed out that the Otago Regional Council (ORC) released an abatement notice late last year, requiring the DCC to stop the wastewater overflows by June 30, 2027.
‘‘So far, the DCC is just re-routing the wastewater overflows, both at the Surrey St/Hillside Rd corner — and that's been done — and then the Surrey St/McAndrew Rd corner.
‘‘They are hoping that this will address the wastewater overflows with the likelihood of reducing the overflow return period from one in two years, to one in five years.
‘‘The question mark is that the ORC abatement notice requires that the wastewater overflows cease, which means that they don't return ever again.’’
He was concerned the proposed ‘‘relatively minor interventions’’ would not achieve the actual cessation of the overflows.
‘‘The Surrey Street Flood Action Group require that the ORC's abatement conditions be met, which is a cessation of overflows and so we would not be happy with a one that only has a one in five year-type probability outcome.
‘‘I think we call them band-aids.’’
He said the group would be keeping an eye on the situation and would keep pushing for a permanent solution.
‘‘We're not going away.
‘‘We want to ensure justice and fairness and due diligence for all of the people in South Dunedin, which have experienced these ... overflows for decades.’’
Mr Vaitupu said the issues involved were complex, and permanent solutions would take time and significant investment.
‘‘But in the meantime — together with other recent short-term improvements — this work is expected to significantly reduce the likelihood of wet weather overflows.
‘‘We understand this work will cause some disruption and we want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding ...’’
