Kaitoke Bridge: The alchemy of location, community, and legacy
July 21, 2025
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The Flume Bridge in New Zealand’s Kaitoke Regional Park provides not only a safe pedestrian crossing for park users but is also the supporting structure for a flume pipe that transports nearly half of Greater Wellington’s water supply. The pipe was nearing the end of its life and needed an upgrade to continue providing the region with safe drinking water. But with New Zealand sitting on the Ring of Fire, and the bridge’s location near a highly active earthquake fault zone, we soon realized a typical pipe upgrade wasn’t enough.
In this video, water engineer Mark Wollina explains why his team decided to replace the structure, designing a flexible network arch bridge that works with nature to increase its resilience and longevity against daily seismic activity. He also shares how coming together with the community at every step earned him and his team the honor of receiving from the Māori people an Indigenous blessing known as a karakia.
Watch now to see how our 100-year bridge design has helped future-proof Wellington’s water supply—even in the case of a massive earthquake—for generations to come.
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