3 days Ago By No Author
Five ducklings have been reunited with their parents and six siblings after falling down a three-metre-deep manhole at the launch site of Watercare’s tunnel boring machine, nicknamed Piper. The McConnell Dowell crew, who are building the Warkworth to Snells Beach wastewater transfer pipeline, discovered five ducklings were missing after one of the parents returned with only six of their 11 offspring. The crew went into Search and Rescue mode to find the missing ducklings.
At the scruffy dome – a large steel grille placed over the inlet to allow for stormwater run-off on site – they heard a faint chorus of quacks and were able to safely rescue the two-week-old ducklings, which were later reunited with the their family. Watercare project manager Dirk Du Plessis says this isn’t the first time a flock of birds has decided to make the Piper’s launch site their temporary home. In late December 2022, a dotterel family halted the Warkworth to Snells Beach wastewater project when it chose to build a nest over the Christmas break.
A protective fence was put around it and the area avoided until the family moved on. Du Plessis says the construction of the Warkworth to Snells transfer pipeline is running smoothly, and Piper is expected to finish tunnelling in early November. “Piper is moving at a good pace, averaging 25mm a minute, and has so far drilled 350 metres of the final 1.
5km leg of the five kilometre pipeline.”.
