Burst pipe disrupts traffic on busy Whangārei road

Traffic was down to one lane after a main carrying river water into a treatment plant burst, causing damage to a busy Whangārei road.

Whangārei District Council contractors were on Whareora Rd yesterday afternoon after the pipe carrying pumped water from the Hatea River to the Whau Valley Treatment Plant burst.

Traffic was down to one lane and WDC expected the burst pipe to be fixed by today and damage to the road in the next few days.

WDC water services manager Andrew Venmore said there has not been any water cuts or disruption to water supply.

"We're using more water from Hatea River at the moment because of low rain and low dam levels. The water main that burst doesn't get used much but that doesn't mean it should burst," he said.

However, he said it was quite a high pressure main as it was located closer to the river.

Between 250 and 300cu metres of water per hour has been pumped to the treatment plant for the past two months.

The burst pipe was located about 1 metre below the road surface.