The Upper Hunter Shire Council in NSW is another step closer to bringing town water to local villages after the tender to create designs for new water reticulation systems was awarded.
ADW Johnson was awarded the $250,855 (excluding GST) contract, with the new reticulation systems to bring town water to the villages of Blandford, Wingen, Parkville for the first time. There are also long-term plans to bring town water to Middlebrook and Gundy.
Once the initial designs are complete, which is expected to be in 2020, Council will consult with the communities of each village, including holding public meetings.
Community feedback and specifically how much demand there is for water services, will help guide which areas of the villages the reticulation networks will service. This will help determine the detailed designs, and the budgets and consumer costs.
Once the designs are completed, the Village Water Reticulation project will occur in two phases:
- The Blandford, Wingen, and Parkville systems, which will be fed from the Scone to Murrurundi pipeline, will be constructed. These systems have received Restart NSW Government funding and are expected to be completed in 2022/23
- Gundy and Middlebrook water systems are included in the design project, but no funding has been allocated yet for construction
The Scone to Murrurundi water pipeline project is on track to be completed before mid-2020.
Once the three pump stations are complete, testing will commence on the system of 40km pipeline and 450,000L storage tanks at Wingen and Warlands Range. The pump stations and water tanks are designed to move 2ML of water a day up and over the range between Scone and Murrurundi. Water storage in the tanks regulates the pumping.
Once the pipeline infrastructure is fully operational, the town of Murrurundi will have a water supply sourced from Glenbawn Dam, and will no longer be on level 6 water restrictions which have been in place since mid 2018.
Council will also be able to cease trucking water from Scone, which has occurred for 12 months at a cost of around $500,000, of which around $200,000 will be subsidised by the NSW Government.
The pipeline project is estimated to cost $14.2 million, with over $13 million in funding provided by the NSW Government’s Restart NSW Water Security for Regions program. The remainder of the project funding is provided by the Upper Hunter Shire council.
The council said it has received a $4,444,000 grant subsidy from the NSW Government’s Safe and Secure Water Program toward the water supply systems for Blandford, Parkville and Wingen and a new, larger reservoir for Murrurundi. The grant is dependent on the submission of a business case. This funding is in addition to the $1,736,000 already allocated to village reticulation and reservoirs from the original Restart NSW Grant.
Council is separately applying for funding for the Middlebrook and Gundy water supplies.
The pipeline and village connections are part of the NSW Government’s commitment to water infrastructure for regional communities, through the Water Security for Regions program and the new $1 billion Safe and Secure Water program.
