TasWater CEO, Mike Brewster, has announced that updates to Queenstown’s Conglomerate Dam have been completed. The major works, which took a full year to complete, will secure the region’s water supply for the next 100 years.
The project included significant works to the dam spillway and improvements to the remote monitoring systems, ensuring that any sudden changes in the dam will trigger safety alarms in TasWater’s operations control centre.
“It was vital for us to complete the upgrade of Conglomerate Dam, not only to ensure the dam wall remains safe into the future but also for the surety of this important water supply for the residents of Queenstown,” Mr Brewster said.
“We brought on Tasmanian contractor Hazell Bros to complete the works who also hired local subcontractors, keeping jobs in the West Coast community. The upgrade design work was also undertaken by Tasmanian firm Entura.
“It is a credit to our staff and the staff of our contractor Hazell Bros that this project was completed without a single injury to anybody onsite.”
TasWater Project Manager Darren McAdie said the upgrade has been a major project, with the dam wall being approximately 16m in height and the berm structure extending on the downstream slope to approximately 32m in height.
“We have transported 22,000 tonnes of rock, sourced locally with a local contractor, as well as 4,500 tonnes of sand and gravel to the site since May last year,” Mr McAdie said.
“We are grateful to the local residents for their patience with the trucks coming and going through town while we upgraded the dam to meet modern dam design standards.”
Significant upgrades are continuing in other parts of the West Coast including a multi-million dollar water and sewerage system upgrade in Rosebery, a major upgrade to the Tullah sewage treatment plant and continuing upgrades to the water and sewerage mains in Queenstown.
