Delivering a new pipeline on a tight timeframe

Havelock North Trunk Watermain

In August 2016, the Brookvale 3 bore in Havelock North caused a fatal campylobacter outbreak. To ensure safety for the community and workers, it needed to be decommissioned and the network upgraded. Our team was there to help.

Given the closure of the bore, a new pipeline between Hastings and Havelock North needed to be built on an accelerated timeline to ensure the community would have continued access to water before the summer demand. It needed to be able to pass safely through potential liquefaction zones—understanding this, our learnings from the Kaikōura and Christchurch earthquakes were incorporated into the design. Due to tight timeframes, early contractor involvement was adopted. This allowed the project team to issue for construction with unfinished plans and work with the contractor to finalize the design. This had positive impacts on the design and brought potential variations to light before they became an issue.

Working closely with Hastings District Council, we identified other construction projects that required design and implementation along the route. These were designed and included in the scope of works: sewer main pressure and gravity upgrades, school crossing and traffic safety improvements, and a new shared off-road footpath and cycleway. To top it off, our team successfully identified and relocated the only remaining black walnut tree in Hastings to its new home in Romanes Park.