Watercare is starting six months of flood recovery repairs in Auckland’s North Shore this month to permanently reconnect 503 households to the wastewater network.

Last year’s Auckland Anniversary Flood events caused extensive damage, with landslips destroying water and wastewater infrastructure in Auckland’s northern and western suburbs.

The permanent repairs will replace 9 temporary bypasses that have been in place since the flooding.

“These bypasses have played a crucial role in maintaining wastewater services for homes and businesses in the North Shore, says asset upgrades and renewals general manager Suzanne Lucas.

“The ground crews have done an excellent job in regularly maintaining all 9 bypasses to ensure services continue to operate as smoothly as possible.

“Having these robust repairs in place allowed time for planning, design, and construction while limiting the impact on customers and the environment.”

Lucas says over the next three months Watercare’s focus will be to permanently reconnect the infrastructure that serves 182 households on Emlyn Place, Torbay and Braemar Road, Castor Bay.

“The bypass solutions currently servicing these areas will be replaced with wastewater pipes installed underground using horizontal directional drilling to protect them from future slips and flooding.

“This drilling method will enable crews to install the pipeline directly underneath the roading and footpath network without causing too much soil disturbance or environmental damage.”

Lucas says crews will also carry out lateral connections to properties on Emlyn Place and Braemar Road.

“These lateral connections will be hand dug at the point of connection to the properties.

“Once the pipeline and lateral connections have been installed, our crews will then reroute the flow of the wastewater network to make better use of the new pipes and the existing wastewater network.”

Lucas says after work on Emlyn Place and Braemar Road has been completed, Watercare will turn their attention to carrying out similar repairs on Dalmeny Close and Bellbird Rise in Murray’s Bay, Lynn Road in Bayview.

“This will see another 321 permanently reconnected back into the local wastewater network.”

Lucas says traffic management will be in place to enable ground crews to set up a site for the drill and allow materials to be transported to and from site.

“Work will be carried out between 7.30am and 5pm, Monday to Friday to help keep noise disruption to a minimum.

“We will let people know if work is to extend beyond these hours. All works are expected to be completed by the end of January.”

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