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King Country News | 1
AUGUST 21, 2025
They saw, they conquered
The Lines Company has won the Innovation Award at the 2025 Energy Excellence Awards. The annual awards recognise achievement, innovation and excellence in the energy sector. TLC was named a finalist in the awards’ innovation category in June - a nomination earned through its helisaw, developed in partnership with Taupō’s Lakeview Helicopters. Using saws suspended from helicopters enabled the company to trim trees near power lines faster, safer and more costeffectively, TLC chief Mike Fox said. “We’re transforming vegetation management with helisaw technology. It’s a game-changer for the electricity and forestry sectors – keeping power flowing and people safe.” TLC was also a finalist in the wellbeing The TLC team on stage at the awards – from left, Mike Fox, Bella Takiari-Brame, Craig Donaldson, Yvette Ronaldson, Simon Batters, Jason Gaukrodger, Liam Foster, Kerry Fabrie, Jill Searancke, Gerhard Buitendach and Romay Rundgren. category.
$10m water project
Hamilton based HEB Construction has won the contract for the Te Kūiti Water Supply Resilience Project. Waitomo District Council general manager Infrastructure Services Shyamal Ram says the contract award marks a significant investment in addressing longstanding issues with the town’s water supply network, which has been under increasing stress due to the current network setup and its storage capacity. It will also be the first major project in the district to come under the umbrella of the new water entity Waikato
Waters Ltd. The loan raised to fund the project will be taken on by Waikato Waters Ltd and the new assets will be vested to the new council controlled organisation which Waitomo joined last month. The project was approved by council in October 2022 and will improve the security of Te Kūiti’s water supply infrastructure after efforts to find an alternative water source was unsuccessful. The total project budget is worth almost $10 million and will be the largest spend on three waters infrastructure over recent years. “The current water
reticulation in Te Kūiti is configured to supply the properties first, with excess treated water filling the Hospital Reservoir for later storage,” Ram said. “This means we do not have a direct filling line from the treatment plant to our reservoirs, which causes difficultly controlling our reservoir levels. This results in our reservoirs taking days to fill when experiencing major watermain bursts.” The new setup would enable council to fill reservoirs at night when electricity charges are lower, and that in turn would decrease
operating costs. “This critical infrastructure upgrade marks a pivotal investment in the future of Te Kūiti, delivering enduring improvements for our water network and communities for generations to come,” Ram said. The contract was signed earlier this month by Hamish Dean, HEB Construction’s National Manager - Civil Construction and Ram on behalf of the council. Work will involve constructing a new watermain to connect the main reservoirs to the water treatment plant, replacing the
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existing reservoir next to Te Kūiti Hospital with a larger tank and expanding network storage to better manage peak demand and emergency situations. These upgrades are expected to reduce pipe stresses and provide more water resilience to the community. Construction is scheduled to start next February and be completed by December. The announcement comes a week after The News highlighted issues with stormwater entering the wastewater network in Te Kūiti.
Shyamal Ram
Waitomo District Council chief executive Ben Smit said sewer overflows happened in limited parts of Te Kūiti in isolated high rainfall events and there was no short term fix.
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