Rocky Point Valve Chamber Upgrade
From July until October 2025, construction work will be taking place adjacent to SH2 between the BP truck stop and the Horokiwi turnoff near Petone, to replace valves in the water main pipe which will make it more resilient to potential earthquake damage.
If you have any questions about this work, please contact:
Wellington Water, 04 912 4400
Latest Updates
From July until October 2025, construction work will be taking place adjacent to SH2 between the BP truck stop and the Horokiwi turnoff near Petone, to replace valves in the water main pipe which will make it more resilient to potential earthquake damage.
Wellington Water in partnership with Brian Perry Civil will be installing seismically resilient pipe connections at two points in the pipeline which carries drinking water from Wainuiomata into Wellington City.
All lanes on both sides of SH2 will remain open during the construction, however there is a single lane over-night closure for the safety barrier relocation works. There will be no speed reductions in place. Signage will be in place to alert drivers.
This pipeline feeds drinking water reservoirs in Wellington City, so residents should not experience any outage of water due to these works.
This project will be followed by work at the Ngauranga Gorge intersection to install further valves. This will start in March 2026 for a period of about 16 weeks to beginning of July.
Work adjacent to SH2 between the truck stop and Horokiwi turnoff, is a part of Wellington Water and Greater Wellington Regional Council’s work to safeguard our water supplies in the event of a large earthquake.
The pipeline bringing water from Wainuiomata into Wellington City running along the side of SH2, has been assessed by engineers and found that it could be vulnerable to liquefaction or lateral movement during a major earthquake.
These improvements will replace pipes connections to build resilience in such a way as to allow the pipes to remain intact and working as intended during and after an earthquake.
All Updates
The second and last coupler being installed at Rocky Point has been successfully completed. The crews will remain onsite backfilling and reinstating the site which is expected to take about two weeks.
Work to relocate the safety barriers back to their original location will take place overnight on 1 and 2 October.
The work to install the first seismic resilient coupler went as planned and we are on schedule to install the second coupler on Wednesday (17/09/20).
The first milestone will be achieved by the end of this week with a 22-hour water shutdown to enable the crew to install the first seismic coupler on the east side of the valve chamber.
A second shutdown is schedule for 17 September.
Although the pipe needs to be drained to enable the work to take place, the shutdowns will not impact any users as the local storage will be utilised to maintain supply.
The establishing works are progressing well and the site now has the welfare cabins and temporary roads in place.
The safety barriers have been relocated which have moved the entrance further south to ensure the safety of our crews as they undertake the work.