Burst water main that closed Wainuiomata High School not problem for big rebuild
Wednesday, 4 August 2021
A burst water main that closed a Lower Hutt college earlier this week hasn’t caused any delays in the school’s $42 million rebuild, the principal says.
Students were told not to attend Wainuiomata High School on Monday and Tuesday after the rupture cut off the school’s water supply. The break was discovered over the weekend, but a repair had failed.
Principal Janette Melrose said, “the pipes are old – up to 50 years old. The second time it happened was due to pressure which buckled the repair”. The main had undergone another repair and students were back at school on Wednesday.
While frustrating, Melrose said that was what they had to expect from old infrastructure. Students were given the option to learn from home, and the school would be prepared for remote learning should a similar incident occur.
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She said the leak was not in any of the buildings and was “well away” from a construction site – part of the school’s rebuild which began earlier this year.
In 2018, the government announced $24m in funding to replace the school’s outdated classrooms and facilities. That amount had since been revised to $42m.
“The Ministry [of Education] realised how run down the buildings were – that they couldn’t just be fixed up, that they needed to be bowled.”
Groundwork on the school’s new Māori, arts and technology block was scheduled to be finished next week, and construction completed by June next year. It would be followed by the demolition of the school’s classrooms, which are to be replaced by open plan “learning hubs”, designed to give students more space for self-directed learning.
“Our students will have the best facilities in New Zealand to do their learning.”
Completion of the rebuild is planned for mid-2024.