Street project unearths surprise
Contractors working on an upgrade of Queen St in Richmond, near Nelson, got a surprise on day one of the multimillion-dollar job – the water main wasn’t where it was expected to be.
Tasman District Council engineering services manager Richard Kirby said the 50-year-old pipe, which is the trunk main for Richmond and earmarked for replacement, was about 1m out at the end of Queen St near the intersection with Gladstone Rd.
‘‘That brought it too close to the new main,’’ Kirby said, referring to the planned location of the new, larger water pipe. ‘‘We need a good metre clearance [between the two].’’
The discovery meant plans had to be rejigged to ‘‘move all the services over slightly’’ and physical work replacing that main was now due to start on Monday, several days later than planned.
Kirby said there might be cost implications of the delay but ‘‘we will still be on programme’’ for the 13-month project.
While the team had predicted surprises, ‘‘I just didn’t expect it to come on the first day’’, Kirby said.
The $11m upgrade of the main street is part of a wider central Richmond infrastructure project for which TDC has budgeted $26.8m in its 2015-25 Long Term Plan. Most of the cost of the Queen St upgrade is associated with work below the ground, including the replacement of the water pipe along with stormwater and sewer lines.
Power and communication services are also due to be upgraded.
The entire length of the fragile asbestos cement water pipe, that runs from Gladstone Rd to the Wensley Rd roundabout, is due to be replaced first, mostly at night and take about four weeks to complete. The rest of the project will be carried out in six stages.