{"id":788647,"date":"2026-05-11T11:41:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/788647\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:41:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:41:41","slug":"how-queenslands-ageing-pipe-network-has-created-an-invisible-problem-under-streets-and-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/788647\/","title":{"rendered":"How Queensland’s ageing pipe network has created an invisible problem under streets and homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a large water main burst and began to flood Kristy Reid-Smith’s north Brisbane home, the first sign of trouble hit her on the toes.<\/p>\n

“I was sitting cross-legged on my work chair and went to put my foot down on the floor and I was like, ‘oh, it’s a little bit wet’. I looked down and I just saw this water rushing underneath the wall,” Ms Reid-Smith said.<\/p>\n

The water gushed through their property for about two hours and inundated the bottom storey of their home.<\/p>\n

“There was just this torrent of water that was coming through the house \u2026 inside, I think it was about two, three inches deep \u2026 and then around the sides of the house it got just below knee height,” Ms Reid-Smith said.<\/p>\n

“The water was so strong that we had a steel frame pool around the side of the house, it buckled the frame of the pool and actually pushed it about 50 to 100 metres up the street,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kristy Reid-Smith and her family have had to temporarily move out of their home.\u00a0 (ABC News: Hannah Moon)<\/p>\n

Ms Reid-Smith said the disruption had meant “massive adjustments” for her young family.<\/p>\n

“It’s been pretty full-on \u2026 on a moment’s notice we had to pack up and move out,” she said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Urban Utilities, which manages this area of the network, said they have crews on stand-by 24\/7 to respond to network incidents.<\/p>\n

“We recognise there are instances where members of the community are impacted by these incidents, and we apologise for this,” they said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Urban Utilities says factors like changing weather conditions, ground movement and soil conditions could cause a pipe to age at different rates. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

A symptom of a bigger problem<\/p>\n

Beneath Brisbane’s streets, a network of pipes laid as far back as the 1890s continues to provide water to the public. It’s part of a large cohort of ageing water infrastructure across Queensland.<\/p>\n

At least 22,000km of water mains in Queensland’s network are headed towards the end of their useful lifespans. The Queensland Water Regional Alliance Program (QWRAP) has dubbed the situation the “infrastructure cliff”.<\/p>\n

A significant amount of Queensland’s pipe network was built in the infrastructure boom following World War II, with a large cohort of asbestos cement (AC) water mains installed between the 1960s and 90s.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kirsty Reid-Smith says there were several inches of water inside her house after a large water main burst.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Those AC pipes are expected to reach the end of their useful life from 2030.<\/p>\n

Exacerbating the risk is the fact that a large percentage of Queensland’s newer pipes are projected to reach their end-of-life period during the peak of AC replacement.<\/p>\n

Modelling from QWRAP’s 2018 Infrastructure Cliff Report suggested if “business as usual practices” continued, Queensland would experience an acceleration in pipe bursts and breaks as the network continued to age.<\/p>\n

Local Government Association of Queensland has been tasked with updating QWRAP’s 2018 Infrastructure Cliff report. The updated report is expected in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Inside Queensland’s water supply<\/p>\n

In south-east Queensland, water distributor-retailers, like Urban Utilities and Unity Water, operate as for-profit statutory authorities, owned by stakeholder councils.<\/p>\n

It means they primarily source funding for future maintenance through their customer base.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Graphic<\/p>\n

Water management and distribution models differ depending on location. (ABC News: Peter Mullins)<\/p>\n

Outside of the south-east, the system is usually more direct, with local councils often managing the entire process from the source to customers’ taps.<\/p>\n

The Queensland Water Directorate is the central industry advisory body for urban water in Queensland. Chief executive Georgina Davis said the lack of funding was a major barrier to proactive maintenance for councils managing their own water supplies.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Georgina Davis says there has not been enough funding to support renewal and replacement of ageing water assets.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“Funding to local government for urban water ceased in 2009 and there has been no dedicated, ongoing funding program from state or federal government to support \u2026 the renewal and replacement of ageing water assets,” she said.<\/p>\n

Dr Davis said more support was needed, with the estimated cost to replace in-ground assets in areas “conservatively as high as $1.8 billion by 2030 and $3.8 billion by 2040”.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Local Government and Water Minister Ann Leahy said water infrastructure has been neglected in the past.<\/p>\n

“The Crisafulli government is investing billions of dollars to support Queensland councils to deliver residential water infrastructure,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

David Brooker says some of Brisbane’s pipe network was laid in the 1890s. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

David Brooker, from Urban Utilities, said 9 per cent of Urban Utilities’ network was planned, designed and built when the technology of the day was horse and carriage on the streets of Brisbane. He said many of those pipes were still working as they should.<\/p>\n

“We use a risk-based approach to assess where that pipe is sitting in its life cycle,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Age is one factor, but it’s not a great factor of determining whether or not a pipe is ready to be replaced.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He said factors like changing weather conditions, ground movement and soil conditions could cause a pipe to age at a different rate.<\/p>\n

“What also happens as south-east Queensland grows is that \u2026 the streets get more dense and more things get built over the in-ground assets, and so they also impact how we maintain, monitor and renew those assets through a pipe’s life cycle,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

David Brooker says relining an old pipe can extend its life by 50 years. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

He said because of this, a fair portion of the repairs happened through reactive maintenance.<\/p>\n

“We are increasingly installing monitoring to see how assets are performing in real time. We do condition assessment \u2026 and then we review and replace pipes,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Brooker said relining sections of ageing pipe could extend their lifespans. That approach, similar to keyhole surgery, minimises the amount of ground that has to be dug up, limiting disruption to customers and speeding up the repair.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A significant amount of Queensland’s pipe network was built in the infrastructure boom following World War II. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

“We pull this folded pipe through the existing pipe, and then unfold it within the existing pipe and that will then expand out to basically press against the walls of the larger pipe and that will extend the life of \u2026 that pipe for another 50 years,” he said.<\/p>\n

However, pipe bursts are not always predictable, and Queensland households are feeling the impacts of reactive maintenance.<\/p>\n

Water restored after burst water main in Brisbane<\/a><\/p>\n

Water has been restored to hundreds of homes which were left disconnected after two pipes burst in Brisbane’s east on Monday.<\/p>\n

An active construction zone<\/p>\n

Since the pipe burst in February, Ms Reid-Smith and her family have been forced into temporary accommodation while repairs are underway. She told the ABC the works were not expected to be completed until June.<\/p>\n

“The house is still an active construction zone. All of the sheets are out of the wall and we can’t use our downstairs area at all \u2026 there’s no laundry,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s made the house almost not feel like home anymore, because I’m a little bit nervous and I know it’s probably irrational, but I can’t help it.”<\/p>\n

While the family is still dealing with the after-effects of the flooding, Ms Reid-Smith said she was concerned others may face a similar situation as pipes across the state approach breaking point.<\/p>\n

“I don’t care whose responsibility it is, just make sure it doesn’t happen to other people because it sucks.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a large water main burst and began to flood Kristy Reid-Smith’s north Brisbane home, the first sign…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":788648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[23],"tags":[746,322269,239928,159,67,132,68,322268,322270],"class_list":["post-788647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-pipe-network","tag-pipes","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-water-mains","tag-water-network"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116555763496264523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}