How’s the traffic in Taranaki Street? An update on the pipes work being done

UPDATE FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER OF GP FRIEL LTD

Gabby the Guided Auger Bore & Other News from Taranaki St Rising Main

February was a fantastic month for our project on Taranaki St and I wanted to share a quick update with you of the progress we have made.

We are building a major new wastewater ‘rising main’ (a pipe that carries wastewater under pressure) along Taranaki St from Market Lane to Wigan St. We are delivering this project for Wellington Water, alongside GHD and on behalf of Wellington City Council. It will deliver a more resilient network for our wastewater and will cater for growth in our city.

Our team in Wakefield St have now completed a successful pressure test of the new main installed under the intersection – including pipework towards Courtenay Place, connections for the new main already installed in Wakefield St outside Takina and for the future main that will head towards Michael Fowler Centre.

We are now installing a pipe from Wakefield St into Market Lane by ramming a casing under the open lanes of Taranaki St. Using a trenchless technique like pipe ramming will allow us to keep Taranaki St flowing, traverse the congested underground services safely and reduce the amount of waste that we send to landfill.

Pipe Ramming across to Market Lane

The entrance to Market Lane from Jervois Quay has been widened to accommodate two way traffic while we have the exit to Taranaki St closed. New signage and road markings are in place. Please take care around these changed road layouts.

At the southern end of Taranaki St between Ghuznee St and Wigan St we have now successfully installed 160m of new rising main using our new Laser Guided Auger Bore technique. This is an accurate way of installing pipes under the ground without having to dig up the road. It has meant that we have not had to disrupt traffic using Vivian St (State Highway 1) and we have minimised the amount of waste generated by the project. Over the next month we will repeat this activity to install pipes under Ghuznee St towards Courtenay Place.

Gabby the Guided Auger Bore working to install pipes under Vivian St

This month you will also see us start to work in Inglewood Place as we make gravity connections to the new pump station recently completed by our colleagues at Brian Perry Civil.  

This work will take approximately 3 months after which WCC will install the new public toilets and the final reinstatement will be completed.

 As ever, please take extra time for your journeys around the traffic management avoid the area if you can and follow the instructions of our onsite traffic management team.

 Our project is planned to be complete in mid-2025 so we are going to be in the area for a while. We will be putting out regular updates to this mailing list to keep you informed of changes to the site and the progress we are making. Let me know if you would like to be removed from the distribution.

Feel free to also send this update to other businesses and residents in the area and encourage them to email us their details to be added to our list for updates. 

Please reach out if you have any questions about the work.

Nga Mihi

David Philipson
General Manager. GP Friel Ltd.