People in Kerepēhi can count on their water supply in ways they couldn’t before. A new 5.3 kilometre pipeline is in the ground, two new storage tanks hold 4.6 million litres of raw water, and the pump station drawing from the Waihou River has been upgraded. That water will keep flowing, through weather events and planned maintenance alike, for decades to come.
The pipeline it replaced had reached the end of its life. Before the upgrade, the Kerepēhi water treatment plant held about 8 hours of raw water in reserve, drawn directly from the Waihou River and subject to tides and weather. If anything went wrong, that was all the time the team had to respond. The new tanks change that. The additional 4.6 million litres creates a 16 hour window of time to fix any supply problems before the treatment plant runs out of raw water.
The Council’s internal Engineering Services team undertook the design for the pipeline and internal Project Management Office and Contract Management teams delivered the project.
Mayor Toby Adams said the investment reflects what responsible long-term planning looks like.
“People in Kerepēhi and across the district turn on the tap and expect water. That doesn’t happen by accident. It takes careful investment in infrastructure that most people never see, and this is a good example of that.”
Switching from the old pipeline to the new one was the programme’s hardest test. The route crosses several private properties before passing under State Highway 2, which required careful coordination with landowners and contractors throughout. The switchover was completed without disruption to anyone’s supply.
The two storage tanks were designed and built by Reliant Solutions Limited, the same company that constructed the treated water storage reservoirs at the Kerepēhi site in 2018. Construction of both tanks ran simultaneously at the back of the treatment plant.
Group Manager Service Delivery Adrian de Laborde said the team delivered on the hardest part of the job.
“Switching from the old pipeline to the new one without any interruption to people’s water supply was a significant technical challenge, and the team delivered that. The storage capacity we have added means Kerepēhi is in a much stronger position, and that is what this programme was always about.”
He said he was proud of the Council’s internal teams who designed the pipeline and delivered the project for our communities.
Work to complete the final commissioning of the Waihou River pump station is underway, with the new pump installed and the system already fully online.
At nearly $10 million, it is one of the larger infrastructure investments the district has seen. Kerepēhi will still be drinking from it in thirty years.
