New Awatea Place Pump Station a boon for Tahunanui wastewater resilience and capacity

The construction of a new pump station at Awatea Place will improve wastewater infrastructure in the Tahunanui catchment, reducing the chance of overflows and enable increased housing growth in the area.

The new pump station will replace two existing pump stations on Parkers Road, that are now ageing and therefore unable to meet the future needs of the Tahunanui area.

This project has been assisted with $3.54m of funding received from central government under the Three Waters reform programme.

Infrastructure Chair Brian McGurk says the funding will help Councils increase resilience of their Three Waters network and assist in providing the region and its contractors economic stimulus after the COVID-19 lockdown.

“Our community is increasingly intolerant of wastewater discharges into waterways, such as the Waimea Inlet and Nelson Haven. We must increase capacity and resilience of our network as we deal with growth and more frequent rainfall events.

“The new pump station is in line with Council’s priorities. It is one of many water infrastructure projects brought forward in the 2021-31 Long Term Plan and will increase the area’s capacity for extra housing, and protect against wastewater overflows that occur due to wet weather.”

The new pump station will receive wastewater from the whole of the Tahunanui area and will then pump it out to the Airport Regional pump station. From there it goes to the Bell Island treatment plant.

Comprising of two large storage tanks for maintenance and overflow management, as well as an activated carbon odour control system, the site for the pump station will receive extensive landscape planting to lessen the visual impact.  

Contractor Hunter Civil Ltd is scheduled to start work in early August, with the job due for completion in June 2022. Residents in the area can expect minor traffic delays on Parkers Road between Awatea Place and Golf Road.

Construction noise will occur during the day, but the contractor will endeavour to keep this noise to a minimum.

Due to the complexity of the work, a full road closure will be required for Awatea Place until the end of 2021.
There will also be restricted vehicle access at times on Parkers Road and nearby intersections. For example, when the sewer pipe is laid along Parkers Road, one southbound lane will be closed.
 
Further traffic management information will be publicised closer to the time of construction to help residents and the community with their journey planning in the area.