26 | Providing district with safe water Taupō District Council is currently working on water-treatment plant upgrades at Kinloch, Omori, Motuoapa, and Hatepe. Taupō District Council T T Kelly Deeks REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT As the trend for significant growth of the Taupō District looks set to continue, Taupō District Council is staying ahead of the curve with its ‘Future-Proofing the Place We Love’ programme, where additions and upgrades to infrastructure are ensuring more capacity as well as structural durability for long-term resilience and further growth. Not only is Taupō central growing quickly, but so are its outlying communities, and Taupō District Council infrastructure project manager Elijah May is currently working on water-treatment plant upgrades at Kinloch, Omori, Motuoapa, and Hatepe. “These plant upgrades are going to help meet rising demand and make water supply in these communities much more resilient,” Elijah says. “They are critical pieces of infrastructure and as such, they are being built to a high standard.” These are modern, membrane-style plants with UV treatment, capable of being operated remotely, and the Kinloch, Omori, Motuoapa plants, all treating raw water from Lake Taupō, are also providing advanced treatment to remove arsenic and provide a barrier against bacteria, protozoa, and cyanotoxins. The upgrades and their modern technology will see Taupō District Council meeting the latest Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand, as set in 2022. At Kinloch, a strong foundation and seismic resilience are key. Marshall Projects has designed and built the plant to be operable after a significant seismic event. “Even if we get a really good shake, we can keep supplying water,” Elijah says. “That requires significant groundwork and piling to put the plant on a strong footing. We’ve installed more than 150 piles to 120 metres around the site, and created one of the most seismically sound buildings in the district.” Once complete in mid-2025, the Kinloch plant will produce 3500 cubic metres of drinking water per day, and the ability to easily upgrade this to 5000 cubic metres per day. The water-pipe network at Kinloch is also being upgraded with a total of 9.2km of the latest HPPE pipes. The plant upgrade at Omori will produce 2000 cubic metres of water per day, and has been built to the same seismic code. “That was a bit easier from a geotechnical perspective, and we didn’t have to drop the piles because the ground at Omori is more stable. It’s the same membrane filtration with UV treatment and a large range of monitoring equipment to make sure we’re compliant with the required standard.” The Omori plant is set for completion in the third quarter of 2025, after which work will begin on a similarly sized plant at Motuoapa, then on a small, 300 cubic metres per day plant for the small community of Hatepe. NZWide • 0274 312 159 • neil@uul.co.nz Big or small • Talk to the experts • Horizontal Drilling • Pipe Jacking • Pipe Ramming • River Crossings & deep work a speciality
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