Major Wakatipu wastewater upgrade to start

A major upgrade to Wakatipu wastewater infrastructure is set to start on Monday, following final approval at yesterday’s full Council meeting.

Queenstown Lakes District Council General Manager Property & Infrastructure Peter Hansby said the upgrade will take around nine months to complete and is a key part of Council’s plan to accommodate growth and provide more resilience across the district’s wastewater network.

“Currently wastewater from Gorge Road, Arthurs Point, Fernhill, Sunshine Bay, Western and Central Queenstown flows to the Marine Parade Pump Station located at Queenstown Bay.  This project will see the construction of a new wastewater pump station at the Queenstown Recreation Ground.  We’ll also be building a pipeline across the Queenstown town centre to carry wastewater from the new pump station to the Frankton trunk sewer,” Mr Hansby said. 

“To minimise disruption we’re investigating the use of a trenchless construction approach to build the pipeline from the Recreation Ground through town to the intersection of Park Street and Brisbane Street road reserve.” 

“When completed early next year the new pump station will immediately be able to service Gorge Road, Arthur’s Point and Lakeview.  This will take some of the load off our existing facility at Marine Parade, provide emergency storage, additional pumping capacity and reduce the risk of wastewater overflows into Lake Wakatipu in the event of an outage in the network or emergency,” he said.   

The Recreation Ground Carpark will be closed from 16 March 2020-January 2021 while the work is underway, affecting around 50 carparks.

Mr Hansby said some disruption is an inevitable part of delivering a major infrastructure upgrade and that Council will work with the contractors to minimise these where possible. 

“We acknowledge that temporarily losing carparks in town may be frustrating for some.  However, it is necessary to ensure that this important infrastructure project can be completed safely.  As the project progresses we’ll keep in touch with affected residents and work to manage disruptions where we can,” he said. 

The work will be completed by HEB Construction Limited on behalf of Council and the community. 

ENDS|KUA MUTU.

Media contact: communications@qldc.govt.nz or call 03 441 1802.