New Marsfield Reservoir

Supporting the growing community

We're building a new water reservoir in Marsfield to support the growing community. This is one of several projects that will help service growth in the Prospect North and Ryde drinking water catchments. 


About this project

We have 247 water reservoirs across Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains. They help us to supply about 1.5 billion litres of drinking water to over 5.3 million people in their homes and businesses every day.

Our existing reservoir at Marsfield cannot service the expected growth in Prospect North and Ryde. The new Marsfield Reservoir is one of several projects that will help service growth in the Prospect North and Ryde drinking water catchments. These drinking water catchments currently service a population of 1.56 million people, which is expected to increase to 2.04 million people by 2031 and 2.26 million people by 2046.

Our work will be done in 3 stages. The main construction work will take about 20 months to finish, but some work is required before and after we build the reservoir tank.

Benefits

The new reservoir will help service the growing community. Our work will ensure we continue to provide clean and reliable water every day.

Impacts

Noise

Our work will be noisy at times, but we are working to reduce impacts. You may hear noise from our machinery and vehicles on-site. We'll keep noise to a minimum, avoid unnecessary loud noises and follow all mitigation measures in the construction environmental management plan.

Dust

Some of our work activities will create dust. We'll manage dust by wetting down our work area, the access driveway and stockpiled material. We'll cover stockpiles when not in use and inspect our work areas often to make sure they're tidy.

If required, we will also organise a street sweeper to make sure mud isn't tracked off our site onto Abuklea Road.

Visual impacts during construction

Properties around our site will notice a change in visual amenity during our work. Some of our equipment and machinery will extend above the fence line, so you'll be able to see things like elevated work platforms and cranes while we do our work.

Shade cloth will help provide some privacy for our closest neighbours.

Truck movements

There will be frequent vehicle movements in and out of the site from Abuklea Road during our standard working hours. Truck movements will vary each day. When needed, our traffic controllers will help keep traffic flowing safely and minimise disruption to local traffic.

Traffic and parking

We will aim to minimise our impact on local streets around the site, but you will notice an increase in work vehicles in the area.

Working hours

Our standard work hours are Monday to Friday from 7am to 6pm and on Saturdays from 8am to 1pm if needed. We'll let you know if we need to work outside these hours.


Project timeline

2023 to 2024: Site preparation work
We've prepared the site by clearing trees and setting up a compound for our workers. We've also installed temporary structures and services to ensure the existing reservoir continues to operate.
2024 to 2025: Main construction work
This includes excavation, building the reservoir and installing the gauge house, water quality facility and pipework within the site. We will then conduct quality checks and connect the new reservoir to the system. We expect this work to take about 20 months, weather permitting.
2025 to 2026: Completion work
After the new reservoir is connected to the system, we'll install additional pipes under the driveway and build a new access road within the site. We'll also paint the tank and do landscaping and restoration work. This stage will take about 6 months, weather permitting.


Project updates

12 December 2024
Constructing the new reservoir floor and walls

We'll soon begin constructing the new reservoir tank. We'll start by installing the tank floor from mid-December. We'll then start installing the tank wall panels from January, with work continuing until about mid-2025.

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28 August 2024
Excavation and pipe installation

We'll begin excavating soil and installing pipes that will service the new reservoir. This work will continue to late October. We'll also install the tank foundation from late September.

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24 April 2024
Main construction work starting soon

We're now ready to start our main construction work. This will take about 20 months and includes excavation, building the reservoir and installing the gauge house, water quality facility and pipework within the site.

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18 December 2023
Tank design consultation

We have 4 options for the design of the new reservoir tank that meet Sydney Water's requirements and standards. You can have your say on what the outside will look like by contacting our project team before Wednesday 31 January 2024.

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07 August 2023
Site preparation work starting soon

Last year, we completed our site investigations to help plan for this work. In the coming weeks, we'll start getting the site ready for construction.

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04 October 2022
Additional site investigations finished

We've finished more site investigations and continue to develop our detailed design in preparation for construction to start in 2023.

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04 June 2022
Upcoming site investigations for the new Marsfield Reservoir

We're building a new water reservoir next to our existing reservoir on Abuklea Road in Marsfield. We'll also be installing new pipes and a water quality kiosk. This will help us service expected growth in the area.

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FAQs

We own the land at 37 Abuklea Road. It has existing supplementary infrastructure to support a second reservoir. It's common to have reservoirs located within residential areas like this. There are no other Sydney Water sites within the Marsfield area that meet the technical requirements for a new reservoir.

We secured this site to include provision and space for this second reservoir, anticipating a future need to service a growing Sydney. The land is zoned as SP2 Infrastructure for critical water supply services that will contribute to a liveable community and provide quality drinking water for future generations. 

We considered other positions within our site. The first position was next to the current reservoir on the eastern boundary, near Agincourt Road. This option was ruled out because the new reservoir would be too close to the existing reservoir and would not meet our safety and technical standards during construction and operation.

The second position was opposite the existing reservoir. This was chosen as the preferred option because it allows enough space for supporting structures and pipes. This location allows full access for the 2 reservoirs to be maintained. It also reduces the construction and operational risks of having 2 reservoirs very close together.

The reservoirs need to be the same height so the full capacity of both reservoirs can be utilised. Because the 2 tanks need to be connected to each other, decreasing the height of the new reservoir would impact how much of the existing reservoir can be used.

Our aim is to retain as many trees as possible. However, trees will need to be removed if they're where our infrastructure is planned to go, or if any significant roots are impacted by our work. There are also at least 6 trees that have health or structural issues, which means they have to be removed regardless of our work.

We're working to minimise tree removal wherever possible. The Review of Environmental Factors – new Marsfield Reservoir states the environmental impacts of our work allowed for 26 trees to be removed to make space for the new reservoir. We've since developed a new arborist report based on the latest iteration of our designs and reduced the amount of trees to be removed by adopting additional protection controls around the trees closest to our worksite. Currently, 22 trees need to be removed to make way for the new infrastructure and we'll continue to minimise tree removal wherever possible. We'll also have the project arborist on hand while we work to ensure we protect trees when working nearby.

We're working with landscape and vegetation specialists to determine the best possible landscape plan for the site. This includes considering taller tree species that can safely grow on our property without impacting any underground or above-ground services. This may include Blueberry Ash, Grey Myrtle, Lemon-scented Myrtle and species of Lily Pilly. We'll confirm suitable locations with our arborists, subject to space constraints on-site.

We'll schedule our work during the day where possible, but some work will be done at night when our water system is at low flow. We expect to work up to 10 night shifts across our construction period. We'll always let residents know before we work at night.