The smelly and expensive business of trucking sewage sludge across Wellington, is coming to an end

It's been costing ratepayers 650-thousand dollars a week to run the round-the-clock operation, since a major wastewater pipeline failed in January.

Wellington Water says the first of two damaged 1.8-kilometre pipes under Mt. Albert has now been repaired by a team of German engineers.

That brings an end to the need to transport the sludge by road from the Moa Point treatment plant, to the city's landfill.

The German crew will now turn its attention to installing a liner through the second backup pipeline, which is due to take another three weeks.

The total cost of the repairs - including the trucking operation - is expected to exceed 16 million dollars.