By rosebell
Following digging more than half of the 600m journey to lay a new wastewater pipe, the TBM broke through the shaft at the intersection of Wellesley Street and Queen Street in Auckland’s CBD last year, whereas the required time for completing the first section by this 1.3m diameter m-TBM was almost two months.
According to Watercare delivery manager David Heinrich: “The breakthrough was an important milestone in the NZ$115m (US$67.31m) wastewater water upgrade for the city centre. There were a few cheers from the construction crew who watched as the cutterhead appeared through the shaft wall. Hats off to the skills of the project team for ensuring the machine arrived safely and on target.”
Linking to the Ōrākei Main Sewer, the new wastewater pipe will capture flows from the city centre. Decreasing wet-weather overflows into the Waitematā Harbour, this project is due to improve the resilience of the local wastewater network, and allow for growth.
In order to enabling the cutterhead to cut through hard basalt rock for the final section of the journey from the Wellesley shaft to Victoria Street East, the m-TBM is due to resume tunneling this week after the cutterhead is changed.
The scheduled date for completing the tunneling process on this 217m section, which will be slower because of the hard basalt rock conditions, is October.
With the aim of enabling new housing, improving the reliability of services and protecting the environment, this project that is part of Watercare’s NZ$13.8bn (US$8.08bn) infrastructure investment program being delivered over the next decade.
The project is part of the Auckland Council group’s midtown regeneration program in preparation for the opening of the City Rail Link.
