Work on replacing the breakage prone water main on Golf Rd in Taumarunui is scheduled to finally get underway from next week (28 March) following a delay due to COVID19 affecting key contractors.
The Golf Rd water main has been plagued with issues in recent years due to a fault in its manufacture that in combination with its age and other environmental factors has meant it has been prone to ruptures.
Environmental Manager Stuart Watson said the replacement of the Golf Rd main will be welcomed by local residents who were impacted by water outages and by the local Veolia crew who often needed to work through the night to repair the main when it broke.
“The work will see 650m of 450mm PVC water main piping and 350m of 125mm rider main piping installed using directional drilling technology which will significantly reduce the above ground impacts and disruption.
Preparation for the job has been underway for a while with the piping having been delivered to Council's Huia St depot in July last year and then shifted to Ward St where it was electrically wielded into sections ready for installation.
With the impact of COVID19 and many large scale of infrastructure works going on in Ruapehu and around NZ it has been important to have all the major components lined-up before we start work so as to avoid the risk of disruption to our planned schedule once works start,” he said.
Mr Watson noted that the $1.3m Golf Rd project is part of $11.7m in water and wastewater projects committed for completion in Taumarunui in the current 2021/22 financial year.
“This year Council is on target to complete 3 waters infrastructure works worth $15.3m as part of having Ruapehu water infrastructure compliant with the new water standards within five years.
This is the largest 3 waters capital investment programme we have ever undertaken in any year and has been made possible by $5.6m in Government COVID recovery funding.
The other major water projects scheduled for Taumarunui include a new 450mm water main along Bell Rd and a water line under the railway yard joining a new Hakiaha St water 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.
When finished these works together with new Hospital Hill water main installed last year will dramatically improve the resilience of the Taumarunui water infrastructure network,” he said.
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