This paper shows how the murky area of stormwater management was navigated during the design stage of an urban highway widening project. The project involved widening - from 2 lanes to 4 - of approximately 1 kilometre of SH74 between the northern Christchurch suburbs of Redwood and Belfast. The paper outlines some of the difficulties faced by the project team to incorporate an acceptable stormwater solution, at a physically limiting site, in a regulatory environment lacking in certainty and consistency in relation to stormwater management. The outcome was a stormwater system based around vegetated swales. The discharge permit for the system was granted on a non-notified basis, for a 35 year term with reasonable conditions. A satisfactory outcome, but the journey to reach it was not as simple as it could have been and highlights a number of needs from a practitioner’s perspective. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E212706.
Abstract