18 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Hastings District Council: Omarunui Landfill Extension T T Richard Loader mw lissette Landfill project increases capacity The Omarunui Landfill will provide additional space to provide for three million cubic metres of municipal waste. “Landfills continue to be developed over many years as they fill up, and as a result Stages 2, 3 and 4 will be developed as and when required.” A project is underway to extend the Omarunui Landfill between Napier and Hastings and provide additional space to accept three million cubic metres of municipal waste, which at current disposal rates will take approximately thirty years to fill. The landfill is owned by Hastings District Council and the Napier City Council, with Hastings being the majority shareholder and administrative authority. Located in Omarunui Road, the site was purchased in the early 1980s due to its suitability as a landfill site and its central location, and is the only Class 1 landfill (permitted and constructed to accept municipal and some contaminated waste) in the Hastings and Napier region. Currently, the next two closest landfills capable of accepting the Hastings and Napier waste volume are in the Manawatu and Waikato regions. The project involves the construction of a new cell at the landfill, and will be the third of four areas (A, B, C & D) at the site to be developed into a lined landfill cell. The first cell (Area A) was constructed in the mid 1980s and opened in 1988. The second cell (Area D) opened in 2007. To date 3.2 million tonnes of waste have been disposed of at the Omarunui site. Martin Jarvis, the Waste & Data Service Manager for the Hastings District Council, holds responsibility for management of the jointly owned facility, reporting to a joint committee of Hastings and Napier councillors. “The Area B project and contract manager is Herman Wismeyer of Focus Project Management,” says Martin. “The project is being completed over a number of progressive stages. Construction of the Enabling Work contract commenced January 2023, and was completed in January 2024. The Enabling Works included stripping and clearing, wetlands, sediment ponds, stormwater controls, bulk earthworks and access roads. “The Stage 1 Construction contract commenced in February 2024 and has a completion date of mid-2025. The Stage 1 work includes bulk earthworks, access roads, placement of engineered fill and construction of the clay liner. “Landfills continue to be developed over many years as they fill up, and as a result Stages 2, 3 and 4 will be developed as and when required. The project cost of developing Area B through to Stage 1 completion are in the order $20 million.” Environmental and engineering consultancy Tonkin & Taylor was engaged as designers and also assisted with the planning work and obtaining all the necessary resource consents. The Enabling Works were constructed by Fulton Hogan, while Stage 1 is being constructed by the Hawke’s Bay branch of Goodman, formerly known as Gair Contracting. “Both contractors brought the necessary resources and skills to successfully complete the work. In the Stage 1 area there was quite a lot of hard limestone rock, which had previously required explosives to break up. “Goodman owned a mining machine with a toothed rotating wheel capable of breaking the hard material up and making it usable as engineered fill. So Goodman saw efficiencies in using that machine, and priced that methodology into their tender.” Martin says that while the project is taking place in an existing landfill location, the consent process was both time consuming and expensive. “Due to the Covid lock-down the consent hearings were held on-line which made the process more difficult than it needed to be. Cyclone Gabrielle struck soon after construction work started, however the timing of this event meant that the programme of works was not delayed to any great extent.” While Area B will provide capacity for another thirty years based on current filling rates, it is hoped that waste reduction initiatives across the board will result in less waste going to landfill and therefore a longer life for Area B.
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