Jeffreys Road Water Supply Suction Tank and Pumping Station

The station, located in Fendalton, had been damaged in the February 2011 earthquake, and required repair as well as restoration. This highly technical job, in an established residential area with strong community engagement, required an array of specialist skills. Work began in May 2022 with site establishment, demolition and piling for the new tank foundations.

Meeting the challenge

Our brief was to construct a new, larger concrete suction tank, including all structural, carpentry, electrical and mechanical works. We undertook all the related pipe work, plus well head upgrades and waterproofing. Finally, there was testing, together with landscaping to meet the needs of the local community.

‘We maintained excellent communication with Christchurch City Council and the community throughout,’ notes Chris Bastin, Seipp’s project manager. This included community meetings, Facebook updates and letter drops to keep everyone up to date with the design and programme.

‘It was a complex project,’ notes council senior project manager Rohan Meissenheimer. ‘We were dealing with existing infrastructure, unknown services underground, potential ground contamination, groundwater and strong community involvement.’

Asbestos was detected in the original 1967 structure during site exploration, so our team employed a rigorous protocol to meet environmental and health and safety requirements. ‘We took a staged approach,’ explains Chris, ‘identifying the asbestos-exposed area, then arranging specialist removal and final testing to ensure all the asbestos and contaminated soil was successfully removed.’

Precision work in a tight space

Next to a popular local park that remained open throughout the work, our team maintained a contained site, so the local community were minimally impacted. ‘There wasn’t much room for manoeuvre,’ notes Chris. ‘We had to be incredibly accurate with pipe work and materials delivery and placement. With a large tank in the centre of the site, task sequencing had to be pre-planned and exact – every step required high-level technical expertise, for instance with the post-tensioning for the tank.’  

We were pleased that the job offered huge scope for team development. There were many different elements to work on: pipe work, structure, asbestos removal, stormwater, water-ducting, electrical, the tank, piling. The project had almost everything that you might ever get on a project, and our team embraced the challenge.  

Increasing the lifespan of New Zealand infrastructure

Restoration of the Jeffreys Reserve Pumping Station guarantees safe, clean water for Christchurch residents for decades to come. By applying understanding from both a design and engineering perspective, we help our clients to future-proof their assets, increase design life, and reduce maintenance costs.

Rohan notes that throughout this challenging job, Seipp demonstrated a keen professionalism. Chris Bastin concludes, ‘Ultimately the client is going to get a very high-quality job, and we’ve demonstrated again that we can deliver the complex projects.’

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