Shovel Ready upgrade brings pump station into the 21st century

A structural and telemetric upgrade of two pump stations at Mill Road, Paeroa, is the first of Waikato Regional Council’s Shovel Ready infrastructure projects to be completed.

The council received approximately $29 million from the Government as part of its economic response to COVID-19, when it called for shovel-ready infrastructure and environmental restoration projects to stimulate industries and the economy, be of public or regional benefit and create jobs.

Flood protection and land drainage manager Adam Munro said farmers would be appreciating the completion of the Mill Road pump stations upgrades given the recent bout of wet weather.

“They should be seeing their paddocks draining quicker. The community has had a really great project completed. We now have better water management in the catchment.”

The two pump stations are a critical part of the Waihou Piako scheme that protects Paeroa, Te Aroha, Turua, Kopu, Ngātea and Thames, and 250,000 hectares of farmland and state highways.

Mr Munro says the funding of $1.92 million from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s climate resilience programme allowed the council to bring the pump stations into the 21st century, “sooner rather than later”.

The pump stations have been given ‘brains’, a smartification programme, meaning they can be controlled from a mobile phone.

“Being able to troubleshoot remotely means there is less delay getting back to pumping water. Staff do not have to go onsite,” says Mr Munro.

“Everything they can do in the palm of their hands … well, except for the weeds. They still need to go onsite to clear them.”

Even so, the management of debris has been vastly improved. Part of the upgrades included new inlet bays, complete with weed screens and a standing platform so a digger can now clear away any debris caught in the floodwaters – instead of staff doing it by hand in usually pouring rain. 

“Our field staff really like the new innovations,” says Mr Munro. “Now they can mostly control the pumps from the comfort and safety of the office or home. They also have more time to spend on other jobs as there is less manual intervention.”

In total, Waikato regional council secured $16 million from the Government's COVID-19 recovery fund for flood protection infrastructure projects totalling over $25 million.

Other projects, which are still being worked on, include:

• a similar upgrade to the Roger Harris pump station near Paeroa
• upgrading up to five pumps to enable safe passage of native fish
• replacing three floodgates reaching their end of life with one, near the mouth of the Piako River, which includes setting back stopbanks and creating wetland habitat for wading birds
• completing the final section of stopbank at Ngātea to design height
• upgrading the Firth of Thames foreshore stopbanks to design height
• the design and build of a replacement vessel for the Tamahere 94 barge which was used as a work platform in the Waikato and Waipā rivers over the last 50 years.

The projects are on Waikato Regional Council’s website.