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RAKAIA—Mid Canterbury |
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SALMON CAPITAL OF NEW ZEALAND |
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Rakaia News Issue 311 Jan 27th is online now |
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Normal hours of the Rakaia Resource Recovery Park are: Monday 10.00 am — 12.00 noon Wednesday 3.30 pm — 5.30 pm Friday 2.00 pm — 3.00 pm Saturday 9.00 am — 4.00 pm
FOR MORE INFO ABOUT RAKAIA PLEASE EMAIL—CLICK HERE |
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Rakaia Water Supply Upgrade Water Tower Farewell |
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Calendar of Events
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The Rakaia water supply upgrading work is nearing completion. The new scheme was commissioned around four weeks ago and appears to be performing very well. The successful commissioning opened the way for one of the final and “highest” profile phases of the upgrade to take place – the removal of the now redundant water tower.. The water tower has been a feature of the Rakaia skyline for close to 40 years and when constructed in the early 1970s heralded a new era for the township at that time, providing water storage and gravity supply for the township’s then new high pressure water supply.
The operation of the scheme was relatively simple with water being pumped from the town wells to the tank on top of the tower. The water then flowed under gravity to the scheme pipework.
The water tower was a steel structure rising 21.3m to the top of the platform. On top of this was fixed a 23m3 (23,000 litres) capacity concrete tank.
With the growth of the township over the years, the storage volume required to successfully operate the scheme exceeded the capacity of the water tower. It was not practical to provide the amount of storage needed on the existing, or a new water tower. So the upgraded scheme relies on new reservoirs holding some 400m3 (400,000 litres) of water and pressure pumps to supply scheme pressure.
The water tower was taken down over two days (9th & 10th December), its passing witnessed by many interested residents and passersby.
The new reservoirs that have replaced the water tower.
ANDREW GUTHRIE |
