Work starting on sewerage
WORK to install 870m of wastewater pipe across the Queenstown town centre will start this week.
Queenstown Lakes District Council general manager, property and infrastructure, Peter Hansby said the work was the next stage of the recreation ground pumping station and rising main upgrade project and would involve a method called horizontal directional drilling.
Work on the project started in May, and the council had already installed more than 650m of wastewater pipe in Park St and started building a new pumping station at the recreation ground car park.
This next phase would result in a wastewater pipe installed across the town centre and connected to the network, he said.
“To do this we’re using a method called horizontal directional drilling which involves the use of a specialised rig to drill a borehole 20m30m under the surface before the pipe that is being installed is pulled back through and connected.”
The drill rig would be based at the recreation ground car park and the borehole would exit at Park St.
“. . . we’ve been welding together 15m lengths of pipe into two 435m lengths. These will be joined and floated across Lake Wakatipu to opposite Park St where it will be pulled through the bore hole.”
This meant contractors could get the job done faster with less disruption. He acknowledged there already had been disruption, particularly for Park St residents and businesses, and thanked them for their patience.
The drilling will start on Wednesday and take about four weeks to complete.