Watercare has started wastewater network upgrades in Warkworth to reduce wet-weather overflows and keep rain out of pipes.

Work begins this month with CCTV inspections of public wastewater pipes in streets north of Elizabeth St, where a bottleneck exists.

Watercare project manager Isileli Aholelei says many pipes were built in the 1960s and 70s and are expected to have cracks and deterioration.

After the network is flushed to remove debris, Watercare expects to reline about 3.5 kilometres of pipes over the next few months using a trenchless cured-in-place method.

Aholelei says relining is as good as a full replacement but is far less disruptive, and it is expected to extend pipe life by another 50 years.

Aholelei says most of the work will have only minor traffic impacts.

The work sits within a targeted $12 million wastewater renewals programme across Auckland’s 8,800-kilometre wastewater network.

Watercare chief operations officer Mark Bourne says work began in the new year on the last of five projects in Watercare’s $450m+ Warkworth Wastewater Scheme for Warkworth and the Snells-Algies communities.

He says the growth-servicing pipeline is the final piece and, once complete, will almost eliminate wet-weather overflows to the Mahurangi River and support growth in northern Warkworth.

Watercare says preliminary work began in January to relocate existing utility services.

The pipeline is split into two stages.

Stage one, the Elizabeth St section installed with open trenching, is due to be completed by December this year and is expected to resolve the bottleneck driving wet-weather overflows.

Stage two is expected to be completed and in service in 2027 to support development in northern Warkworth.

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