Irrigation ponds provide security
Mayfield Hinds Irrigation Ltd contracted Rooney Earthmoving to design and construct three storage ponds on the northern side of the Rangitata River at Carew. The ponds, which cover an area of 130 ha, were designed to provide further security for the irrigation water of the Mayfield/Hinds irrigated area. Storage capacity is 7 million cubic metres and water was fed from the Rangitata Diversion Race Irrigation scheme. The construction process involved moving over 2 million cubic metres of soil, locally sourced and constructed to form the earth bunds that surrounded the ponds.
Quality assurance and engineering were provided by an independent civil engineering company to ensure building compliance standards were met. These three ponds were lined with an imported product known as High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). Rooney Earthmoving undertook all aspects of the design, construction, HDPE lining, quality control and final commissioning.
Project Scope:
- Three large earth ponds over an area of 130 hectares and a storage depth of five metres
- Fully waterproofed ponds with 1.5 million square metres of 1.5mm HDPE liner
- Ponds are interlinked with automated gates within concrete structures
Technical Constraints:
Construction time constraints resulted in the adoption of an alternative easily sourced liner, HDPE. The company quickly grew a team of experts sourced from overseas and NZ to meet this challenge. This new skills developed on this project has now become one of Rooney’s competency that is now used every week in the business.
Outcomes:
The construction of the Carew storage ponds was a successful project resulting in the client, MHIL now operating a more efficient and reliable irrigation scheme for their clients and farmers.
