Watercare has finalised the Dunkirk Wastewater Pump Station and 1.4km gravity sewer main, in an effort to reduce wet weather overflows into the Tāmaki River.
The wastewater infrastructure has been delivered as part of stage 1 of a $51 million joint shovel-ready program between Watercare and Kāinga Ora, which will enable residential growth in Panmure and surrounding suburbs over the next 15 years.
Watercare project manager Jason Salmon said the Dunkirk Wastewater Pump Station can handle flows of up to 225L per second.
“The pump station’s increased pumping and storage of up to 700,000 litres of wastewater across its four underground storage tanks will play a significant role in reducing overflows into the Tāmaki River during wet weather,” Salmon said.
“The 1.4km gravity main will also help to prevent most overflows into local waterways by diverting the extra flow during heavy rainfall to the new wastewater pump station.
“In the future, stage two of the works will involve construction of a new rising main from the Dunkirk Pump Station to the Eastern Interceptor – a large transmission pipe that carries the wastewater to our Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant.”
Salmon said the pump station’s design is practical and sustainable.
“By working collaboratively with our construction and design partners Fulton Hogan, we landed on a design that reduces our concrete usage and includes more sustainable materials like glass-reinforced plastic– which allowed us to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1400 tonnes,” Salmon said.
“To make the build more sustainable, we substituted traditional steel construction fencing with weather hoardings made from a culmination of timber, plasterboard, packaging, and other recycled plastics from saveBOARD.”
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