Infrastructure services includes roading, water supplies, wastewater and open drains.

Roading

Wanganui District Council provides a road network that has an all weather surface with good skid resistance, visibility and smoothness. It is capable of carrying both light and heavy vehicles.

Access to all District properties is provided through 220km of urban roads and 615km of rural roads, including 74 bridges. Traffic management is provided through control systems, signs and markings.

219km (99%) of the urban and 314km (51%) of the rural roads are sealed. 94% of urban sealed roads have kerb and channel both sides. Sealed road roughness is kept below the point that causes high vehicle wear.

Road widths/shape are approximately relative to the vehicle volumes carried. Vegetation mowing/cutting is carried out to specified distances from the road.

Unsealed roads are maintained to the following standards:
Potholes - repaired before they reach 50mm depth.
Corrugations - repaired before they reach 25mm depth.
Grading to standard cross section profiles of 5-7% camber.

Urban roads are swept to keep litter and dust to specified minimum standards.

Safety is maintained by traffic control/calming devices e.g. signs, islands, flush medians, traffic lights, edge markers etc. Most sealed roads more than five metres wide have markings to guide traffic – repainted regularly to maintain clarity.

The Council provides road lighting to promote safe night usage – meaning brighter lighting on busy roads.

Stormwater control is provided, so that roads have limited ponding in all but large storms.

There are 2.6km of cycle ways on some busy and narrow roads.

Eight service lanes (0.9km total) to give rear access to commercial properties in the Central City area.

Most road maintenance activity is paid 38% by the ratepayer and 62% by Land Transport New Zealand (central government agency). Other roading activity is paid 28%/72%.

Water supplies

Find out more about the discovery of a soft water source for Wanganui…

November 2009 - and soft water is now onstream. Read more...

The Council’s water supplies give consumers a continuous supply of water at reasonable volume, pressure and quality and provide a fire fighting capacity to defined areas.

Water comes from four artesian bores - three at Kai Iwi and one at Aramoho - plus two recently constructed bores, Heloise and Abelard at Westmere. After treatment, water is supplied to the city and distributed to consumers. Three 23,000 cubic metre reservoirs at Westmere provide storage.

Separate rural schemes are operated at Fordell, Mowhanau, Westmere and Maxwell. Fordell, Westmere and Maxwell rural schemes have their own committees.

The following services are provided to urban consumers:

1. Supply is available to all serviced properties 99% of the time.
2. Flow at point of supply generally exceeds 15 litres per minute.
3. Pressure at point of supply generally between 20m and 60m head.
4. Water is chlorinated and meets New Zealand Drinking Water Standards 2005.
5. Residential connections are restricted to garden sprinkling between 7pm to 9pm.
6. Service/toby locations on request within five working days.
7. Flow from hydrants in the urban area has 85% compliance with the New Zealand Fire Service code of practice.

The services provided to rural users vary between schemes.

Quality, quantity and pressure complaints/enquiries will be responded to within 24 hours. Leaks will be repaired within five working days.

New domestic connections will be installed within eight working days of receipt of the connection fee.

Wastewater

The Council’s wastewater services disposes of sewage and stormwater to maintain a ‘clean’ environment.

Sewage pipes throughout the urban area connect properties at the boundary. Collected sewage is pre-treated and discharged to sea through the ocean outfall. Industrial premises are serviced through a controlled discharge regime. Separate rural schemes are operated at Marybank and Mowhanau. Stormwater pipes connect to some properties but many still discharge through the sewerage system. This is no longer acceptable and property owners will be advised (suburb by suburb) that they need alternative disposal for their stormwater, such as soakage, separate connection to the stormwater system or other methods. All properties in the city are to be separated by 1 July 2007.

The stormwater system also drains the road surface. Clean stormwater is discharged to the river or streams.

Within the urban area, the following services are provided:

1. Pipe locations on request within four working days.
2. Sewage and stormwater connection pipes are provided to property boundaries from the street.
3. The service is available to all connected properties 99% of the time, decreasing as the separation work proceeds.
4. Residential properties (except for those in restricted services zones) can discharge an unlimited volume of sewage and stormwater.
5. Sewage is kept out of the river 96% of the time.
6. Stormwater volume is limited to varying capacity of pipes and road surface but is designed to minimise significant nuisance.
7. Industrial sewage is collected in accordance with individual industry agreements.

The same services are provided for rural sewage.
Complaints/enquiries about service breakdown are responded to within four hours.
Urgent surcharges will be responded to within one hour.
New connections are installed within eight working days of acceptance of quotation.

Open drains

The Council provides waterways and natural drainage to manage natural water systems so that they meet environmental and amenity standards for the urban area.

Natural water flows through the ground and in open watercourses from the rural area to the Whanganui River and the coast through the city environment. These water systems are managed to ensure they are not contaminated and do not create problems such as flooding or dampness. The Council undertakes physical maintenance of watercourses and open drains and also requires privately owned drains to be maintained where necessary for the wider community.

The following services are provided:

1. Public health protection by ensuring that procedures for eliminating potential wastewater disease transmissions are followed.
2. Respond with high priority to sewer contamination or flooding that is likely to affect public health.
3. Maintenance clearing of open drain systems.
4. Enforcement of the maintenance of privately owned open drains.
5. Monitoring of the Matarawa flood control scheme.
6. Maintenance of urban stopbanks.