Mt Albert Tunnel Entry

The Team from Wellington Water

The final stage of the repair to the Mt Albert tunnel and sludge lines involves repairing the floor of the tunnel. As part of this, on Thursday night a crew will be entering the tunnel to perform a visual inspection.

As the tunnel is an active wastewater pipe, we’ll hold wastewater flows at the pump station while the inspection is carried out. We’re scheduling the entry at night when wastewater flows are at a minimum, thereby maximising the amount of time our crews can spend in the tunnel. The plan is for the crew to spend 40 minutes in the tunnel, while based on normal operations we have capacity at the pump station to hold the wastewater flows for up to an hour. In the very unlikely event that the crew has to spend more than an hour in the tunnel, some screened wastewater may need to be discharged from the pump station into the Cook Strait. All possible steps will be taken to prevent this, however it is important to note that this inbound wastewater is made up of 99% water, and is therefore very different to the dewatered sludge that was transported during the earlier stage of repairs. Generators onsite may create some noise, however there will be no construction undertaken during this entry. We will monitor odour and use misters if necessary.