An integral part of the Clyde Falling Main Project was installed yesterday, signifying another key point in the Central Otago District Council’s Water Stimulus projects.

Fulton Hogan and subcontractors cast the concrete for the intermediate plinths that secure the new falling main pipeline, which runs from the Clyde water reservoir to the existing network on Sunderland St.

The $1,050,000 project replaces the existing gravity-pressured falling main, with the old pipework to be retained for the backwash system for the future Lake Dunstan water supply treatment plant, Central Otago District Council Capital Projects Programme Manager Patrick Keenan said.

“However, owing to the very steep section in the middle, it was decided that the most effective and safe means of casting the concrete for those plinths would be by helicopter.”

It involved about a half day’s work to complete the task.

PHOTO: Supplied

The new pipeline would provide increased resilience for the Clyde community’s water supply, he said.  

The next stage is to fit the brackets that hold the pipework to the plinths then lift the pipeline sections in via crane.

The total length of the pipe is 78m and the hill gradient is 52 degrees.

Earlier this month the Central App covered another milestone in this work, the installation of new Alpha St wastewater jumpstation storage tanks in Cromwell - see Cromwell Water Stimulus project on track.

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