Achieving a more reliable water supply for Auckland

Ensuring that water flows reliably from our taps whenever we need it, despite the growth in population around us, is essential to modern life. It’s what CH2M Beca delivered through Project Waikato.

Auckland is expanding, rapidly. Essential infrastructure needs to keep pace with this growth, including the water supply network. That’s why Watercare devised the $100 million Project Waikato. It involves the design and construction of a new water supply for Auckland from the Waikato River, increasing the supply reliability of the network and providing for the longer-term population growth predicted in the Auckland region.

To deliver 150 million litres of treated water per day from the Waikato River to a reservoir in Manukau, the extensive work undertaken included a 2,000 litres per second river intake structure, a raw water pump station, advanced treatment plant and a 37km-long steel pipeline.

We provided multi-disciplinary design services for all elements of the project and also undertook construction support, commissioning and operation during testing for two years before completion to ensure everything was functioning effectively. To allow the potentially disruptive pipeline construction, our community liaison and environmental management staff did a great job meeting the tough demands of the regulating authorities.

An innovative design approach meant significant cost savings for Watercare. By undertaking complex analysis to model pipe and soil interactions over different conditions, we designed tailored construction techniques. These enabled the wall thickness to be reduced from the standard 9.5mm to 8mm over most of its length – representing huge savings.