Featherston Watermain Renewals – 2025/26
About this project
The Featherston Watermain Renewals project is the first cab off the rank for Council in bringing the delivery of the capital water programme back in-house from Wellington Water Ltd (WWL) in July 2025. The project was released for open tender with Elite Drainage Wairarapa being awarded the contract in October 2025. It has been five years since SWDC has run its waters capital programme in house. The anticipated benefits of Council managing its waters capital programme directly include more cost control and efficiency and the use of local contractors as project leads or subcontractors where appropriate.
The Featherston Watermain Renewals scope is to replace 2.6km of aging water pipes, which are thought to be one of the sources of ongoing leaks and water loss. This project is essential to improve water supply resilience to the community.
Timeline
The renewal programme will be completed in two phases, from 10 November 2025 until 30 April 2026.
Phase one is scheduled to begin on 10 November 2025 and run until the SWDC end-of-year brown out period (where programmed works cease for the holiday period) beginning on 15 December 2025. The order of Featherston streets for watermain renewal is Crawford Street, Boundary Road, Waite Street, Birdwood Street, and Revans Street.
Phase two of the project begins on 8 January 2026 and includes: Fox Street, Fitzherbert Street (SH2), Ludlam Street (SH2), Lyon Street, Hickson Street, Fitzherbert Street East, and Boar Bush. The detailed programme for phase two will be completed at later date. Traffic management approvals for work on SH2 are currently under way.
Phase one (2025) – Crawford Street, Boundary Road, Waite Street, and Birdwood Street, and Revans Street.
Phase two (2026) – Fox Street, Fitzherbert Street (SH2), Ludlam Street (SH2), Lyon Street, Hickson Street, Fitzherbert Street East, and Boar Bush.
Current status
11 December 2025
The Birdwood Street watermain renewal is nearing completion with the final connection work for a larger area scheduled for Friday 12 December.
To do this work, the water supply needs to be temporarily turned off between 10am and 2pm. This also applies to the Featherston public toilets, which means that they will be closed for use over this time.
For the period that the public toilets are closed, Portaloos will be positioned on the grass area between the playground and RSA.
Project advice letters have been delivered to affected residents in the areas shown below. Traffic management is in place. Please ensure that vehicles are kept clear of the work site.
Previous updates
8 December 2025
The project is making good progress with Crawford Street completed and Boundary Road scheduled to be reinstated and completed next week. Birdwood Street is on track to be done before the Christmas break.
On Monday 8 December lateral connections will be made on Birdwood Street. To do this work, the water supply needs to be temporarily turned off between 10am to 2pm.
Project advice letters have been delivered to affected residents in the areas shown below. Traffic management is in place. Please ensure that vehicles are kept clear of the work site.
28 November 2025
The project is making good progress with Crawford Street completed and Boundary Road scheduled to be reinstated and completed next week. Birdwood Street is on track to be done before the Christmas break.
On Monday 1 December lateral connections will be made on Boundary Road. To do this work, the water supply needs to be temporarily turned off between 10am to 3pm.
Project advice letters have been delivered to affected residents in the areas shown below:
Traffic management is in place. Please ensure that vehicles are kept clear of the work site.
17 November 2025
The project is well under way with the team working on Birdwood, Crawford, and Waite Streets this week.
On Tuesday 18 November lateral connections will be made on Crawford Street. To do this work, the water supply needs to be temporarily turned off between 10am to 3pm.
Project advice letters have been delivered to affected residents in the areas shown below:
Traffic management is in place. Please ensure that vehicles are kept clear of the work site.
7 November 2025
The Installation of the new watermain pipe in Crawford Street, Featherston has begun. Traffic management is in place. Please ensure that vehicles are kept clear of the work site.
Project advice letters have also been delivered to residents on Boundary Road, Waite Street, Birdwood Street and Fitzherbert Street East.
31 October 2025
From 10 November 2025, works will get under way in Crawford Street, Featherston with the installation of new watermain pipe.
This work will take about two weeks from the 10 November 2025 until 24 November 2025. Hours of work will generally be 7am to 6pm from Monday to Friday, with some Saturdays worked, if necessary.
Traffic management will be in place to help guide pedestrians, ensuring their access and safety is maintained throughout the works. We will also require that all vehicles are clear of the work site. This will be highlighted with no parking cones the night before.