In this section

Waimangaroa water supply upgrade

Kia ora koutou - welcome to the project page about the Waimangaroa water supply upgrade.

Background

Waimangaroa's water supply serves a total of 140 connections consisting of approximately 250 residents. The old trunk main was vulnerable to breakages, which resulted in frequent townwide outages.

This improvement project provided a number of upgrades, aiming to improve the resilience of the Waimangaroa township's water supply and prevent frequent disruptions.

Project summary

The project was split into three key components:

  • Replacement of the entire trunk main from the Banbury/Neighbours St intersection to the intakes.
  • Upgrade of intake infrastructure.
  • Replacement of pipelines in the township.

Work began in May 2022, utilising the remaining Ministry of Health subsidy to install a new 500 metre polyethylene (PE) pipeline from Neighbours Street down Conn’s Creek Road, replacing the old rural PVC pipe laid in the 1990s. This new PE pipeline is specified to meet the pressure of the supply and is better suited to above-ground applications when compared with PVC.

This project recommenced in July, with the installation of a further 1,200 metres of pipeline to the top of the Stone Wall on Conn’s Creek Road, including installation of a flow meter on Conn’s Creek Road. This portion of work was completed by TruLine Civil. 

The remaining section of trunk main replacement, from the Stone Wall to the intakes was completed by WestReef Services Ltd in October 2023.

Now that the trunk main has been replaced, breakages in the supply should be rare and disruptions will be minimal. 

Upgrades of the intake infrastructure that have been completed: 

  • Installation and switchover of a new intake at Conn's Creek including valves and settling tanks.   
  • Installation of 2 x 30,000 litre tanks for additional storage and settling, and 2 x 1,000 litre silt tanks.
  • Upgrade and switchover of the Unnamed Creek intake screening structure.

As a result of the upgrades, each intake is independently able to supply the township with water. This allows maintenance and cleaning to be carried out without disruption of the township's water supply. 

The new Unnamed Creek intake is the main intake; Conns Creek is the secondary intake source, which can be utilised in particularly dry periods to supplement water supply when Unnamed Creek is running low.  

A 1950s rider main on Neighbours St has been replaced as part of this project. The last remaining major section of steel pipe within the reticulation on McGill St has been replaced with PVC. The switchover took place in June 2023.

Resources

Read previous publications about this project to know what has been shared with the community to keep you up to date.

What's next?

Weekly maintenance is carried by a contractor to ensure all systems are functioning as required. 

We understand there is still an intermittent turbidity issue for the Waimangaroa water supply and Council continues to investigate this. 

Enquiries

If you have an enquiry about Waimangaroa water, please email info@bdc.govt.nz or phone Council on 0800 807 239.