Wollongong council has taken action to minimise the risks posed by four potentially dangerous stormwater drains in public parks – and is working on a criteria to assess more than 2000 inlet structures across the city.
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Friday marks one year since Ryan Teasdale died after being swept into an open drain by floodwaters at Unanderra’s Riley Park on March 16, 2017.
The 11-year-old was playing on a boogie board in gushing water, alongside his older brother and other children, at the time.
His body was found the next morning about 500 metres from the drain opening.
The council has since replaced the open drain at the bottom of the Unanderra park with a grated system.
Earthworks have also been done to slightly reconfigure the way water flows in the area during times of heavy rain.
The work followed a detailed investigation of the stormwater drainage inlet at Riley Park, a council spokeswoman said.
“The existing design in the park was built in the 1950s as part of a NSW Housing Commission development. It wasn’t consistent with what would be required to construct in this location now,” the spokeswoman said.
“The flat design of the new drainage pit means that stormwater is shallow at the opening while the configuration of the grate reduces the likelihood of blockage and maximises inlet capacity.”
The new design was based on a Queensland urban drainage manual, given the lack of specific stormwater safety and risk management guidelines in NSW, she said.
Since last year’s tragedy, the council has also investigated other stormwater drains in the Wollongong local government area (LGA), with four of them found to be of “a potential risk”, she said.
The at-risk sites included Riley Park, Charles Harper Park in Helensburgh, Nyrang Park at Keiraville and Tarrawanna’s Foothills Basin.
The spokeswoman said there was “no one-size-fits-all solution”, with the council implementing site-specific risk management strategies, such as warning signs and, in the case of the Helensburgh site, an inlet safety screen.
The council is also in the process of developing a criteria that could be used to assess the risk of other inlet strcutures across the LGA.
“It’s estimated there are more than 2000 of these structures,” she said.
“Once the criteria has been finalised we will put together a plan to systematically review and, if appropriate, replace or modify other structures.”