The next major stage of Taumarunui's water infrastructure upgrade has started this week with work on the relining of the wastewater and storm water mains along Hakiaha St getting underway.

The Hakiaha St underground water infrastructure has suffered from breakage issues for some time due to a combination of factors including the pipes age and condition as well as environmental factors such as sub-surface conditions and heavier vehicles driving over them.

Environmental Manager Stuart Watson said that the $1.1m relining project of the wastewater and storm water piping will both strengthen and extend the life of the pipes by up to 80 years.

“Relining of the existing pipes rather than full replacement saves both money and community disruption from needing to dig up the main street.

It is a further example of Council looking to make use of technology to lower costs and disruption when undertaking infrastructure work such as the recent use of directional drilling to install the Simmons Rd water main which has just been completed,” he said.

"Unfortunately, COVID19 and the extended Level 4 lockdown in Auckland has disrupted things with the job now scheduled to take around 11 weeks through into November in two stages.

The first stage will see local Veolia teams establish manhole access to the mains before specialist crews from Veoila's Spiral Wound Pipes Division undertake the relining process.”

Mr Watson said that the project up after this is the $850,000 replacement of the breakage prone Golf Rd water main that has benefited from $600,000 in government COVID19 recovery funding.

“This work will be done alongside the installation of a new 450mm water main along Bell Rd and a water line under the railway yard joining the Hakiaha St main to complete the loop.

The Bell Rd main will be an independent trunk main from Matapuna reservoir to Rangaroa reservoir designed to ensure water supply if there is any pipe failure within the CBD area.

The last part of the puzzle will be the installation of a new Hakiaha St water main.

This will run under the footpath to help protect it from the heavy vehicle traffic that has contributed to pipe breakages in the past.

The plan is to coordinate the Hakiaha St water main work with veranda renewal as part of earthquake prone building strengthening and township revitalisation.

These works together with the replacement of the Hospital Hill water main at the beginning of the year will dramatically improve the resilience of the Taumarunui water infrastructure network.

The work is part of around $5.3m of 3 waters capital works planned for Taumarunui in this financial year (2021/2022).

Overall around $16.4m of capital works is budgeted for 3 waters projects for this financial year across the district.

They are part of Council’s even larger accelerated 3 waters capital works program that aims to have Ruapehu water infrastructure compliant with the new water standards within five years.”

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