About 2000 tonnes of cement-like grout have blocked up a big new water main pipe in central Auckland.
It is having to be dug out after a big pour on the $400 million Hunua 4 water supply project went wrong.
It appears the equivalent of morethan 150 mixer-trucks full of grout got poured before contractors realised it was going into the underground pipe instead of around it to support it, as planned.
Four months on, repair work is still going on near Khyber Pass.
"We need to finish removing the grout in order to identify how the incident occurred."
The repairs were being dealt with by its insurers and would not delay the final section much, it said.
Auckland's new water pipeline, called Hunua 4, will run from Redoubt Rd in Manukau City and finish at Khyber Pass in the central city. Image / Watercare
Most of the 31km-long, 1.6m-diameter pipe - inside a 3m-diameter concrete casing - is already in use, having been completed in stages.
The final stage of the nine-year project runs from Epsom to Khyber Pass, and is being installed mostly by tunnelling to reduce disruption.
The pipe is laid in the tunnel, then the gap between the pipe and the tunnel is filled with grout.
"Thankfully, we are able to carry out other work while we remove the grout to minimise delays to the overall project schedule," Watercare said.
It reported the problem to Auckland Council, its owner.
