Watercare will begin a $6.74 million project to replace the Glenbrook Beach watermain in April 2024.
The original pipeline experienced a joint failure in January 2023, when half a kilometre of pipe dislodged and floated to the top of Taihiki Estuary.
Watercare project manager Sean McHenry said twin pipelines will be installed to provide additional redundancy. These will be constructed under the estuary using horizontal directional drilling.
“Using horizontal directional drilling to install the pipelines instead of anchoring them to the seabed using concrete weights will reduce soil disturbance to the riverbed and environmental erosion,” McHenry said.
“Installing them this way is less risky and has better health and safety outcomes as it eliminates the need for manually anchoring the pipelines to the estuary bed.
“Having the pipes underground also reduces erosion risk and the potential for ongoing pipe breaks.”
McHenry said the new pipelines will be installed near where the original pipeline broke.
“The new pipelines will run underneath the estuary in a straighter line to improve resilience and reduce the likelihood of pipe breaks,” he said.
“They will supply more water to the community, support population growth and development proposed for the area.”
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