Almost 6,000 tons of landslide debris has been shifted to enable construction crews access to the broken northern water pipeline and the Crystal Creek Bulk Water Supply Intake Structure that feeds the pipeline in the foothills of Paluma national park.
The pipeline links Paluma dam to the Northern Water Treatment Plant and ordinarily supplies Townsville with roughly 15 percent of the city's daily water supply.
Acting Mayor Ann-Maree Greaney said medium level water restrictions would remain in place until the pipeline was restored.
"The pipeline supplying water from Paluma sustained serious damage during the record-breaking weather event earlier this year," Cr Greaney said.
"Initial estimates were we'd be able to have that pipeline back in action in 4-6 weeks, however due to the extent of the landslides and damage to the access road, the project has proven to be more complex and time consuming.
"Contractors have been hard at work clearing the seven-kilometre access trail of more than 5,900 tonnes of debris to get to the damaged section of pipe and intake structure. It's been a big job.
"The scale of the landslides were enormous; in one section there was debris piled up more than 5 metres high over the road, and in many cases due to receiving more than 2.5 metres of rain, some sections of road were washed away completely.
"Now crews have cleared the trail, they are focussing on getting the condition of the road to a state where we can get the heavy vehicles in that are required to fix the pipeline. This will include bringing in around 2,000 tonnes of rockfill and 150 rock bags to stabilise the road.
"Given the northern water pipeline supplied Townsville with around 35ML a day, or around 15 percent of our daily water usage, we're asking our community to remain patient and continue sticking to medium level water restrictions."
Works to remediate access to the northern pipeline, along with its repair are being undertaken by local contractor CivilPlus thanks to jointly funded Commonwealth and State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
With the rain passing, the city's water usage has been steadily rising, from roughly 90ML a day during March to over 120ML a day in the past week.
Townsville's Douglas Water Treatment Plant has the designed capacity to provide 232ML of drinking water to the city a day.
Divisional councillor Paul Jacob said Townsville residents were used to digging deep when it came to water conservation.
"Townsville is no stranger to being water wise," Cr Jacob said.
"While the Douglas Treatment Plant is more than capable of supplying our city on its own, we don't want to place extra strain on our infrastructure when we don't have to.
"Our northern water pipeline is critical and serves as a backup if anything was to go wrong with our main water treatment plant in Douglas.
"The reality is living in the dry tropics we know how valuable this precious resource is, and our community knows how to dig deep and be conscious of their water usage.
"People might think that because the dam is full it's a free for all, but our water storage isn't what is keeping us on restrictions, it is maintaining our ability to treat and provide safe drinking water.
"People can do little things like having shorter showers, only using the dishwasher or washing machine when you have a full load, checking your taps or irrigation for leaks and dialling back your sprinkler times now we're heading into the cooler months.
"Pending weather and conditions, we're expecting the pipeline back in action by June 30, so restrictions will be in place at least until then, so we thank the community for their patience."
Council is continuing to reduce its daily water usage by 3.5ML through adjustments to irrigation systems.
Medium-level water restrictions include:
- Sprinkler use: 5–7am or 6–8pm on odds-and-evens days.
- Handheld watering anytime.
- Vehicle and boat washing with a bucket.
- Hard surface cleaning with pressure washers only.
- Businesses with high water use, like nurseries, should avoid watering between 9am–4pm and use water-efficient systems outside those hours.
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