Water Authority of Fiji ground teams will conduct repairs to the 250mm wastewater rising main along Viti Levu Drive in Pacific Harbour, which collapsed due to sustained heavy rain and ageing infrastructure.
The pipeline collects gravity flow from 224 houses within Makosoi, Admiral Circle and Viti Levu Drive and discharges to Deuba 5 wastewater pump station.
WAF CEO, Barry Omundson says the collapsed line is sitting at a depth of around four to five metres and numerous attempts to repair the collapse pipeline were unsuccessful due to high infiltration and underground flow into the trench that the team could not remove to carry out the repair works.
The Authority says as Pacific Harbour was developed on reclaimed land consisting of sand and soil, it is difficult to conduct trenching works, which is an issue for the ground teams seeking access to replace a fault.
Omundson says the age and condition of WAF’s assets here compound an already difficult situation.
He says this presents some operational challenges, so they have to factor in extra time and resources to account for this.
Omundson says in the next few days, WAF will install a temporary by-pass which will see the installation of a by-pass pump from the upstream manhole before the collapsed pipe, which is then discharged into a manhole downstream.
A permanent solution will be submitted in the next Public Sector Investment Programme 2020/2021 for design and build.
