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Moa Point Interceptor Rehabilitation

Rehabilitating a critical sewer pipe to avoid a wastewater spill on Wellington’s South Coast

  • $3.5M

    Project Value

  • 260

    Metres of Wastewater Pipe Lining

  • 50+YR

    Design Life

  • Wellington, New Zealand

    Wellington, New Zealand

Meeting design, consent, procurement, and construction management challenges for a failing sewer pipe

Infrastructure, like sewer pipes, typically have a long service life and are replaced in a timely fashion. Occasionally, a piece of infrastructure requires immediate intervention to avert impacts beyond service interruption. When the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant’s interceptor, a critical sewer line, was at risk of immediate collapse, untreated wastewater threatened Wellington’s South Coast.

Under urgency, our client provided straightforward instruction—quickly rehabilitate the interceptor for a minimum 50-year design life, with minimum impact. We reviewed various rehabilitation methods, designed, consented, procured, and oversaw construction. Challenges included a bend in the pipe, high flows, restricted access, and limited rehabilitation options. The high flows couldn’t be diverted in the existing network. For flow management, Wellington Airport’s security fence was realigned to provide access to a flow balancing chamber. With a robust methodology to isolate the interceptor, we coordinated approvals from Wellington Airport, Wellington City Council, and Veolia to enable extraction of up to 1,200 litres per second of flow.

To further complicate matters, the work was done during penguin breeding season—a fence was built around part of the site to prevent the penguins nesting, and a specialist dog handler checked the area was penguin-free before work started. Despite these obstacles, we successfully rehabilitated the interceptor and in doing so have drastically reduced the risk of a major wastewater spill on Wellington’s South Coast.

At a Glance

Offices
Client
  • Wellington Water
Partners
  • Interflow
  • E N Ramsbottom
Meet Our Team

April Peckham, Principal Planner

I support clients to obtain statutory approvals, while also helping keep our communities safe and protect our environment.

Hayden Pipe, Senior Principal Civil Engineer

In my role, it's essential to work collaboratively. Working together successfully on the delivery of projects gives me great satisfaction.

Andre Le Roux, Technical Director

A rapid, economically smart energy transition is within reach if we optimize our resources.

April Peckham

Principal Planner

Hayden Pipe

Senior Principal Civil Engineer

Andre Le Roux

Technical Director

We’re better together

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    Work with passionate people who are experts in their field. Our teams love what they do and are driven by how their work makes an impact on the communities they serve.

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