Watercare’s proactive upgrades program is full steam ahead as final preparations are made to commence work on the new Warkworth-Snells wastewater pipe north of Auckland.
The wastewater pipe will be the next to kick-off as part of Watercare’s $300 million plus investment program that will see an ongoing series of projects rolled out to support population growth and improve environmental outcomes.
Six months of preparatory earth works will commence towards the end of next week, with tunnelling expected to start in March 2023.
Dirk DuPlessis, the project manager for the pipeline, said that the transfer pipeline will help improve the resilience the wastewater network. Residential growth in the area is expected to swell to 28,000 people by 2050.
Teams on the Warkworth-Snell pipeline will use a combination of microtunnelling and horizontal directional drilling – called the direct pipe drilling method. The project will construct a 5 km pipeline that will connect the Lucy Moore Memorial Park pump station to the Snells-Algies Wastewater treatment plant.
The wastewater transfer pipeline will be constructed from 423 steel pipe lengths, each of which weighs approximately 6.85 tonnes.
According to DuPlessis, the combination of methods for direct pipe drilling method is very safe for workers. Further, the method isn’t sensitive to geology. Teams will be able to drill and bore through soft and hard ground, which will empower them to get the job done quickly.
As with many of the projects that form Watercare’s program, the pipeline will both improve current conditions, and safeguard future use of the network.
“This programme of work will help to clean up the Mahurangi River by removing the current treated wastewater discharge into the river from the existing Warkworth Wastewater Treatment Plant,” said DuPlessis.
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