1 March 2024:

The Waimea Community Dam has had its final concrete pour – a 91m3, five-and-a-half hour effort this week, involving 10 concrete trucks.

The pre-dawn concrete pour created a mass block and end wall for the valves that control the water flow from the dam’s reservoir – Te Kurawai o Pūhanga – into the Lee River.

Over recent weeks the Lee River has been fed via the spillway while the temporary HDPE pipe that diverted the river was removed, and the dam’s pipework and systems installed.  The flow over the spillway can be seen to the right of the image.

Engineering analysis and verification of dam performance is due to be completed shortly by Waimea Water Ltd.

The Waimea Community Dam has been built for Waimea Water Ltd by Fulton Hogan and Taylors Contracting. It is the first large dam to be constructed in New Zealand in 25 years and the first publicly-funded large dam to be constructed since the Clyde Dam was finished 30 years ago.