Stead Street FAQs

The pump station on Stead Street is part of a comprehensive flood protection scheme that helps to protect Invercargill City from inundation. It is essential to the 116 properties in the immediate area and is a lifeline for the airport, supporting 320,000 passengers plus freight each year. The former pump house and pumps were at the end of their life, and there was an increased risk of failure. Unlike the old pump station, the new facility meets a requirement to manage fish passage under the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater in 2020.

In September 2022, Fulton Hogan were awarded the contract to build the replacement Stead Street pump station.

In 2020, Environment Southland secured $2.25 million of funding from central government as a contribution to assist in replacing the ageing Stead Street pump station.

The contract price for the pump station was $8.3 million. In August 2022, Council allocated a budget of $11 million for the pump station design and construction and provision of two fish-friendly Archimedes screw pumps.

The project remains on track to be delivered within budget.

No. The remedial works costs are being recovered from the responsible parties.

We identified design and construction issues in mid-June 2023 following a review of the pumps’ operation and maintenance requirements. These errors resulted in the concrete slab that supports the new Archimedes screw pumps being built 440mm higher than it should have been.

Hydro-demolition was used to break out the concrete in localised areas within the pump station and reduce the height of the supports while retaining the surrounding structure and reinforcing steel. This solution means that the new pumps operate as originally designed.

The remedial works took longer than anticipated, primarily due to the significant amount of hydro-demolition required to prevent damage to the existing reinforcing so that the structural integrity of the building could be maintained. Contractors had to deal with larger than anticipated volumes of water infiltrating the foundation slab cutouts, which needed to be addressed so that the remaining reinforcing steel could be installed and concrete poured without risk to the integrity of these pours. In April, Fulton Hogan revised the indicative commissioning date for the new facility to mid-to-late June 2024, two months later than what was signalled in September 2023, when the remedial works began. In May, commissioning was rescheduled for mid-to-late July 2024 due to wet weather delaying electrical installation, which requires a watertight building envelope. Practical completion was met by 30 July 2024.