Birchville Dam

Category
Engineering Work (eg road, bridge, sawmill, dam)

Description
Birchville dam is on Clarke's Stream which is a west bank tributary of the Hutt River at Birchville north of Upper Hutt. The water supply to Upper Hutt from this 1930's dam is not the first drawn from Clarke's Stream as the land around the stream was purchased by the Upper Hutt Town Board for a water supply reserve in March 1914 to provide a supply to Upper Hutt Borough in April of that year.Water drawn from a streambed intake was passed through a settling tank and an eight inch (200mm) pipeline to cross the Hutt River at Birchville.

The contract for the dam was awarded to M G Templeton in April 1930. The engineer for the work was H F Toogood a Wellington Consulting Engineer and the Clerk of Works was John Cudby. Council records show that an extension of time was granted to the contractor in November 1930 and that by February 1931 an additional loan of 10% of the contract price of 5,800 pounds was required. The actual completion date may have been early 1931.Water from the dam was fed into the original pipeline via a new 12 inch (300mm) pipe the remains of which can be seen in places along the streambed.

The dam is a constant radius concrete arch dam of 27.5 metres radius with a crest (chord) length of 40 metres (arch length 46 metres) and is approximately 15 metres high above lowest foundation level. The infill of boulders at the foot of the dam (to protect against scour) makes the dam appear lower. The lake behind the dam is partially silted up.

Location
On Clarke's Stream about 30 minutes walk upstream from the Bridge Road carpark on the Cannon Point Walkway.

Region/s
Wellington / Kapiti

Access Info
Take Akatarawa Road from Upper Hutt to bridge over Hutt River and turn left over bridge into Bridge Road - follow to car park up hill at end of road. See "Location" above for track to dam.

Nature of Engineering
Infrastructure (incl. Road, water, ports)