Queenstown Lakes District Council has slashed its Three Waters capital works budgets by $119M over the next two years. 

Councillors agreed at Thursday’s (December 15) council meeting to decrease the Three Waters capital budgets by $54M in 2022/23 and $65M in 2023/24 by deferring various projects to future years, including several in the Upper Clutha.

The Three Waters capital programme was reviewed with the aim of more prudently managing debt “in light of high market inflation; increasing interest rates and the potential impact of leaky building legal claims”, a council staff report to councillors said.

Some major Three Waters projects, such as both Luggate’s and Cardrona’s water supply schemes, in the Upper Clutha will be affected by the decision.

The QLDC has committed to paying $17.2M towards Cardrona’s joint public/private drinking water supply scheme with Mount Cardrona Station, which is already underway, but agreed at Thursday’s meeting to defer $5M of the development costs to the next financial year.

Another $2.6M of capital works was deferred by postponing the start of the construction of Luggate’s water supply scheme until June 2023.

The long-awaited Stone Street stormwater upgrades, created to resolve the unintended flooding of Bullock Creek by stormwater runoff from a Meadowstone residential development, has also taken a hit.

Over $4M has been deferred from this stormwater project while staff re-evaluate the proposed design solution and substantial investment.

Other local projects are unaffected, including the upgrade of Project Pure (the Upper Clutha’s primary wastewater treatment plant) and the upgrade to Lake Hāwea’s wastewater treatment plant, which has substantial government funding; these will proceed as budgeted.

The major Three Waters upgrades currently underway around Wānaka are also unaffected. 

The North Water Project, which has disrupted residential road use along lower Aubrey Road for months, will be paused over the Christmas holiday period and the roads will be reopened to all traffic until work resumes next year.

The North Wānaka project, which is replacing and upgrading existing pipes that connect the public water system to homes on Aubrey Road near the lakeside; the new water supply pipe to connect to the existing system at Sir Tim Wallis Drive; and a new wastewater connection near the Albert Town pump station all began earlier this year.

QLDC media spokesperson Sam White said the three elements of the North Wānaka project are on track and are scheduled for completion around Easter next year.

Disruption to residents, with roads blocked and traffic diverted, will ease during the Christmas holiday period. Sam confirmed there will be a stand-down period, when contractors will not be working on the roads over the holidays.

“We intend to remove all traffic management specific to council’s work programme at the western end of Aubrey Rd by Thursday [December 22]… [and] work will recommence from 9 January,” he said.

Work on SH84 near Puzzling World ended on Friday (December 16) and will also resume on January 9. 

The other major Three Waters project, the Western Water Supply upgrade (which caused substantial traffic disruption to Golf Course Road, Ballantyne Road and MacPherson Street, as a new water main was laid and a new pump station was constructed on Wānaka-Mount Aspiring Road) is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Sam said.

“There will be short, temporary closures of some stretches of road as we lay new asphalt. The slumping issue [on Golf Course Road] will be rectified as part of the project,” he said.

“We recognise that cones and diversions often cause the community frustration, and we thank everyone for their patience, but they do indicate that improvements are being made for the township’s long-term future as it continues to grow.”

PHOTOS: Wānaka App