Havelock North water pipe installation making good progress

Workers and Hastings District Council staff with pipes ready to go underground to link Havelock North to the Hastings water supply. Photo/Supplied

The installation of a pipe linking Havelock North to the Hastings water supply is making good progress.

More than 200m of the new main water pipe has been laid at two locations since site work started on March 7.

In Howard St 120m had been laid by last Tuesday, heading towards central Hastings, and in Crosses Rd 136m had been laid.

Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the critical main water pipe would enable Hastings District Council (HDC) to discontinue supplying water from the Brookvale bore field.

"This is a very important project that will be a major contributor to increasing the safety, resilience and capacity of our drinking water supply."

It is a major project which sits within council's Drinking Water Strategy, she said.

"Every aspect of our approach has been under review since the 2016 Havelock North water contamination, particularly including new information relating to the aquifer, which we rely on for our water supply.

"We have taken the learnings from all the work that has been undertaken since then, both within Council and externally, and used that to build this new strategy."

Hastings District councillor and works and services committee chairman Kevin Watkins said the laying of more than 200m of pipe is excellent progress.

"This is a significant major project and we are very pleased that the construction is working very smoothly."

A third work site St George's Rd is getting underway.

Waste water work that is being undertaken in conjunction with the water main project in the Park Rd to Howard St area is also expected to start in the next few days, as soon as the contractors doing this work are freed up from another project, he said.

Some fine-tuning around vehicle management had been put in place, with traffic signals controlling traffic overnight in the areas where roads had been reduced to single lane.

Once work in Crosses Rd is further from the Karamu Stream bridge, traffic lights will be trialled during the day.

They are also being considered for Howard St outside of school opening and closing times.

"At all times, our highest priorities are safety around the site and the smooth flow of traffic.

"As changes are made they will be carefully monitored to ensure they are achieving those aims."

The laying of the new Hastings to Havelock North water main is one of a number of actions within the Drinking Water Strategy already underway.

Others included the raising of bore heads to above ground (which has been completed), the fitting of UV filter treatment to all water supplies, investigating a new water source in the Whakatu/Tomoana area and adding further enhancements to all the smaller water supplies.