Newcastle West 1 Wastewater Pump Station Upgrade

We’re upgrading the Newcastle West 1 Wastewater Pump Station.

After successful preparatory work completed in late 2022, we are delivering the major upgrade from late June 2023 and we expect to finish early next year.

The upgrade is designed to reduce maintenance requirements and extend the operational life of the station, improve amenity and support population growth in the area.

This station services a population of about 12,500 community members in the Newcastle CBD and the surrounding suburbs Adamstown, Broadmeadow, Carrington, Hamilton, Hamilton East, Hamilton North, Hamilton South, Islington, Maryville, Mayfield, Mayfield East, New Lambton, Tighes Hill and Wickham.

The station has ample capacity now but these suburbs will continue to see substantial redevelopment including several new multi-storey residential apartment buildings which is why we’re planning for the future.

The pump station which is next to Marketown Shopping Centre car park is one of the region’s largest and the longest running at 110 years. It transfers wastewater from the above suburbs to Burwood Beach Wastewater Treatment Works.

What we've already done

We have previously prioritised some minor upgrades to the station to minimise nuisance odour which included installing additional pipework within the station and replacing ground-level covers and hatches.

In late 2022 preparatory work for the major upgrade included installing an interim odour control unit and replacing the existing vent stack with a shorter, modern standard vent stack.

What we’re doing now

We’re recommencing work with site set up before construction starts on the major upgrade.

The major upgrade includes:

• replacing the interim odour control unit with a larger, permanent odour control unit

• concrete remediation of some existing underground structure and replacing penstocks at the station

• continuing the detailed design phase

Marketown Car Park Impacts

Some areas of the Marketown West car park will be fenced off and unavailable to the public for the duration of the project. A portion of on-street parking in Little King Street will also be unavailable to the public.

From time to time, there may be temporary changes for traffic entering the Marketown car park from Little King St. Car park detour signage and any necessary traffic/pedestrian control will be in place when required.

As part of the planning process, we completed an environmental assessment known as a Review of Environmental Factors (REF) for the proposed works and it can be viewed below.

We will continue to update local businesses and residents as the project progresses.

This project is part of Hunter Water’s program to replace and upgrade water and wastewater-related assets across the region. Hunter Water looks forward to continually improving the infrastructure that delivers quality outcomes for both the community and the environment in which we live.