Constructed between 1908 and 1911, Morton Dam was built to increase Wellington’s water reserves and was a key part of the city’s early 20th-century water supply system. The dam, named after City Engineer William Hobbard Morton, was made of reinforced concrete flat slab buttresses, spanning 128 metres and standing 17 metres tall.
The Morton Dam pipe starts at Morton Dam and linked into the existing pipeline that replaced the water race near the location of the old dam. From there, the replacement pipe follows under or near Reservoir Road, passing under the Pump Station. It then continued close to Coleman’s Tunnel where it crossed the Wainuiomata River at each end of Richard Prouse Park. Today, this section from Coleman’s Tunnel and other sections of pipe have been been replaced by the green pipe.
