A key milestone has been reached in one of the Central Otago District Council’s Water Stimulus projects with the installation of the new Alpha St wastewater pumpstation storage tanks in Cromwell this week.

In the past two years, the Council (CODC) has received $9.46 million from Tranche 1 of the Government’s Water Stimulus Funding, which has enabled $5.49 million worth of projects to be fast-tracked through the 2018 Long-term Plan that were in the 2022-2027 years.

As one of the first of the Water Stimulus projects, it will increase the capacity of the Melmore Tce and Alpha St pump stations in Cromwell. The upgrade project was tendered at the cost of $630,000 for the installation of purpose-built wastewater tanks at Alpha St and increased storage at Melmore Tce.

Delivered on Thursday, these tanks are designed to deal with wastewater overflows during heavy rain events and system outages. This will allow wastewater to be stored for a period, which would mean emergency maintenance could take place, and therefore avoid overflows into Lake Dunstan.

Covid-19 restrictions had delayed tank manufacture in Auckland and the availability of a subcontractor to complete site fabrication work, Central Otago District Council Capital Projects Programme Manager Patrick Keenan, said.

However, the project was expected to be completed by contractors Fulton Hogan by the end of March.

Onsite to see the arrival of the two Alpha St wastewater storage tanks at Cromwell, from left Central Otago District Mayor Tim Cadogan, Central Otago District Council Project Manager Josh Wight (Councillor Nigel McKinlay obscured) Cr Cheryl Laws, Fulton Hogan Project Manager Brodie Flannery and Cr Shirley Calvert.

“The project improves the resilience of the Cromwell’s wastewater network and mitigates the risk of unnecessary overflows into Lake Dunstan. Being one of the first project in the Water Stimulus programme it’s great to see it coming to fruition.”

Central Otago District Councillor/Cromwell Community Board member Nigel McKinlay was pleased to see the installation of infrastructure that would help sustain the 23% growth the town had seen over the past five years.

“We are planning on this rate of growth to continue. The new wastewater storage tanks are part of an ongoing programme to deliver high quality infrastructure to underpin Cromwell and Cromwell district’s future. Our council will be losing control over three waters in two years’ time so it is also important to do as much as we can while we still have the ability to make decisions on what is best for our district.”

Mayor Tim said it was great to get a look at these tanks before they got covered.

“Infrastructure like this isn’t terribly sexy to the untrained eye but is hugely important to ensure we protect our environment in the event of power failures or other issues causing the pumping system to stall.”

The Council is continuing with a programme of other projects which include the Clyde and Roxburgh falling water main replacement, Alexandra Northern Reservoir construction, Wrightson’s wastewater pump station storage improvement and the Naseby water treatment plant clarifier construction.

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