Jackson Street Pipe Renewals Project

Hutt City Council has approved in principle Wellington Water’s recommendation to renew all three waters pipes (stormwater, wastewater and drinking water) in Jackson Street simultaneously. 

The recommendation is in a report Wellington Water submitted to the Council in July, outlining a condition assessment of the three water assets and an analysis of five different renewal options.

All assets are over 100 years old and need replacing within the next 10 years.

Renewing all three assets at once will reduce the overall impact and level of disruption on businesses and the community. It will mean more construction time spent in each city block employing  a ‘one and done’ approach, which will prevent the need for ongoing repeat disruptions.

The next step is for the Council’s Long Term Plan / Annual Plan Subcommittee to consider funding options. Subject to this being finalised, the project would proceed to detailed design and working with businesses and the community on how they will be impacted and ways to address this.

Wellington Water submitted a report to Hutt City Council late May outlining options for renewal of the waste and/or drinking water pipes as well as the stormwater pipes.

The planned stormwater pipe renewal works were put on hold in February to allow time for us to assess the condition of the two other pipes, which are over 100 years old and need renewing soon, and to analyse options for either, or both pipes, to be safely renewed alongside the stormwater.

The report outlines five different renewal options.

We are now waiting on Hutt City Council to confirm the best option.

Works on the Jackson Street stormwater pipe renewal is on hold to allow us to consider whether we could renew the waste and/or drinking water pipes at the same time.

These options are still being analysed and considered.

As part of the options analysis, further assessment of the existing pipes’ condition and layout is required to determine whether a solution can be designed that allows either, or both, of the other pipes to be safely renewed alongside the stormwater. We already know both pipes are over 100 years old and will need to be renewed soon. This assessment will help us better understand design requirements and therefore whether we can practically undertake the work simultaneously.

The options analysis is expected to be completed and submitted to Hutt City Council for review around mid-May.

Timeframes for two possible scenarios are as below:

Because of the nature of the work - replacing stormwater pipes located down the middle of Jackson Street between Queen and William streets - there will be some unavoidable impact on traffic and pedestrians.

We are working with Hutt City Council to plan how to minimise disruption. 

• Road closures and diversions
• Loss of street parking
• Impacts on pedestrians having to use temporary diversions
• Noise impact of heavy construction machinery.

We also understand there will be concerns and frustrations for local businesses during the construction period. That's why we are working with the Jackson Street Programme Board to represent local interests and advise us on what we can do to minimise impacts as much as possible.

On Thursday 24 August, we met with the Board to outline the project work programme and to discuss how we can try to reduce the impact on businesses through traffic management.

Download the meeting  documents:

• Information sheet
• PowerPoint presentation
  
  

Between Queen Street and Cuba Street, surveying works will be carried out at night to minimise disruption as we need to access stormwater manholes located in the middle of the road, requiring traffic management to be in place. 

The dates for this survey are Sunday 5 March to Thursday 9 March between the hours of 8:30pm and 5:00am.

Between Cuba Street to William Street, surveying works will be carried out during the day.  Surveying during the day will minimise disruption to residents by avoiding potentially noisy activity at night. 

The dates for this survey are Thursday 2 March to Friday 3 March between the hours of 9:00am and 4:00pm.

Works are subject to weather and timeframes may change.

Borehole drilling and potholing

 The areas we will be undertaking borehole drilling and potholing are:

• 249 Jackson Street
• 263 Jackson Street
• 265 Jackson Street
• 285 Jackson Street
• 295 Jackson Street
• 305 Jackson Street
• 315 Jackson Street
• 325 Jackson Street
• 337 Jackson Street
• 351 Jackson Street
• 353 Jackson Street
• 363 Jackson Street
• 371 Jackson Street
• 381 Jackson Street

This work involves a mix of drilling a narrow shaft into the ground to determine the nature and location of the different soil/rock layers, collect samples and vacuum excavation to dig precision holes over and around utility lines to expose them.

It is scheduled to take place between Monday 13 March to Friday 21 April. We expect to be working outside each of the locations identified for no more than 1 – 2 days. General hours of work will be 7:00am to 6:00pm Monday – Friday.  

 Traffic management will be in place while work is being undertaken, some off-street parking and accessways will be unavailable and footpath access will be diverted to ensure pedestrian safety. There will also be some construction noise, dust, and vibration from the drilling.

The construction approach we are using means we will be able to move locations as quickly as possible, but we apologise for the inconvenience this will cause and will do our best to minimise disruption.

Our contractors Wellington Pipelines will be in touch 48 hours beforehand to confirm more exact timings of the locations they will be working in.

For after hour enquiries or urgent, please contact the Hutt City Council Call Centre on 04 570 6666.