Havelock North pipe progress and road closures

The Crosses Rd crew is just 200m from the intersection with St George's Rd, with the road-resealing team not far behind them. Photo / Supplied.

There are signs of progress on the project to install a new water main between Hastings and Havelock North, with more than 30 per cent of the 4.8km length in the ground.

In Crosses Rd there is just 200m left to go and the road re-sealing team has started work behind them. The stretch starts on the west side of Crosses Rd Bridge, ending at St George's Rd.

In St George's Rd, pipe-laying heading from Crosses Rd to Howard St continues and another team is starting on the building of a new cycle lane. The crews are expected to be working there for another 10 weeks, weather-dependent.

The trickiest sections are in the main urban areas, which have required a number of road closures.

The next will be St Aubyn St, from Monday, May 21, from Terrace Rd to Windsor Ave, and Windsor Ave, from Heretaunga St to Howard St.

Access for residents and service vehicles will be maintained and detour routes will be marked. It is expected that these closures will be in place for about four weeks.

The contractors advise that the St Aubyn and Windsor closures will only occur once the currently closed Terrace Rd is reopened, also timed for Monday.

Ada St is also due to reopen at the end of this week, on May 18, while the closed sections of Sylvan Rd and Queen St are due to reopen in mid-June.

Hastings District Council works and services committee chairman Kevin Watkins said managing the construction was a juggling act, with safety the top priority.

"We are working on more than four different sites across the length of the project, so the logistics are complicated.

"We are only closing sections where we absolutely have to, for the safety of the public, work teams and the residents living in the affected streets.

"A bonus is, however, that by closing sections of road, the work does go a lot more quickly, which means we can be out of there as soon as possible."

The $10 million project is a key part of the drinking water infrastructure upgrade plan being implemented by Council, which in turn is a critical part of Council's Drinking Water Strategy, designed to improve the resilience, capacity and flexibility of the drinking water supply network.