We've reached a key milestone in the $139 million Huia 1 Replacement Watermain Upgrade, with work wrapping up on Atkinson Road two months early.
We reached this feat by pulling in some of our contractors working on other sections of the Huia 1 pipeline; enabling them to complete the 850m section in under five months.
The works on Atkinson Road to the Daffodil St intersection is one of many sections of a new pipeline that will replace the current Huia 1 pipeline that has been in service since 1950.
We have been working with construction partner March Cato to steadily build the 17km replacement pipeline that will provide fresh and clean water to around 20% of Auckland's population as well as building and installing the pipeline that will stretch from Western Reservoirs in Konini Road in Titirangi to an existing watermain underneath Gillies Avenue in Epsom since 2017.
Once complete, the new Huia 1 watermain will service homes and businesses in Titirangi, Blockhouse Bay, New Windsor, Green Bay, Hillsborough, Mount Roskill, and Epsom.
Our project manager Tim Manning says the reason for building the new Huia 1 pipeline is because the current one has reached the end of its life and needs to be replaced by a larger one to ensure the continuous delivery of essential water services.
"The pipeline will also be trenched into reserves as well as along roads and footpaths to make it easier for future maintenance and access.
Manning says with 66% of the pipeline already complete, we're on track to finish the new pipeline by mid-2025.
“A huge focus for us is to deliver the critical infrastructure in a way that minimises disruptions to the travelling public and local businesses, such as undertaking construction on busy roads during the holidays when there is less traffic.”
Manning says the project's scope has also undergone some changes since its initial proposal back in 2017, which proposed to renew the Nihotupu Watermain at the same time as the Huia 1 Watermain.
"However, plans to renew the Nihotupu Watermain were scrapped in 2021 in favour of a small pump station near Kaurilands Primary School that better complemented our current western water network - where the Huia 1 and 2 water mains could be easily connected.
"Changing tact empowered us to better align with our 40:20:20 business objectives: to reduce carbon in infrastructure by 40 per cent by 2025, reduce the cost to deliver our infrastructure by 20 per cent by 2024 and improve the health, safety and wellbeing of all people involved in delivering our infrastructure by 20 per cent each year.
"Saving us $5.5 million in construction and labour costs, 31% carbon emissions and six-months construction time."
With the Atkinson Road section of the Huia 1 replacement project now complete, our team will continue to work on Daffodil Street intersection. In June, the project team will turn their attention to the Mount Roskill section of the project, which goes from the Scout Avenue and Simmonds Avenue intersection and down McCullough Avenue finishing at the Duke Street carpark near Te Tatua-a-Riukitu reserve – locally known as the Big King entry.