Trenchless Technology in Australasia:
Celebrating 30 Years of the ASTT
CEO
John Murphy PUBLISHER
Christine Clancy christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au EDITOR
Molly Hancock molly.hancock@primecreative.com.au JOURNALIST
Isla Sutherland isla.sutherland @primecreative.com.au BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Nick Lovering nick.lovering@primecreative.com.au DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER
Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au ART DIRECTOR
Blake Storey blake.storey@primecreative.com.au DESIGNERS
Kerry Pert, Aisling McComiskey COPYRIGHT The ASTT 30th Book is owned by Prime Creative Media and published by John Murphy. All material in the ASTT 30th Book is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information, Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published. The opinions expressed in the ASTT 30th Book are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated. © Copyright Prime Creative Media, 2021
ARTICLES All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format.
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Trenchless Technology in Australasia:
Celebrating 30 Years of the ASTT ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 5
6 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Celebrating 85 years of innovation
“We look forward to the next 85 years of supporting our customers and uplifting communities.” Geoff Weaver, Managing Director
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CONTENTS
Contents 12
14
President’s Report
Secretary’s Report
ASTT President Ben Crosby.
ASTT Secretary Jeff Pace.
32 30 History of the ASTT
Embracing trenchless technology
Take a look bast at how the ASTT started.
The use of various trenchless techniques.
36 96 Trenchless Technology through the years
Trenchless Technology Trailblazers
Trenchless recap from 1991 to 2021.
Insight into the key players of the industry.
10 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
President’s Report I
t is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the ASTT 30th anniversary book. It is a great milestone in the history of the ASTT and we enjoy the opportunity to reflect on the history of our industry across Australia and New Zealand and the Society over the last 30 years. Trenchless technology has evolved a lot over the last 30 years and there is no doubt that the Australian and New Zealand markets have become a lot more aware of the no-dig message because of the efforts of you, our industry and the ASTT. From its humble beginnings in 1991, the Society has evolved into an effective and relevant association that regularly gets the trenchless message out to its members, stakeholders, asset owners and the public. The Society has had a number of great people assisting it to get that message out, and this book will highlight many of them. This book will also showcase many of the great innovations our industry has provided over the 30 year period, and it is timely to reflect on how far we have come. The ASTT and the Australasian region in general have been at the forefront of the ISTT and the global trenchless technology scene over this period. Currently the ASTT has a representative on the ISTT Committee in Trevor Gosatti and he ensures our region is adequately heard and that we have an appropriate number of International NoDig Conferences Down Under! ASTT’s goal for the society is made up of the four pillars below and we as Council promote these industry wide: · Awareness – Ensuring there is a broad understanding that our technology exists. · Support – Planners considering our technology know where they can seek advice. · Reputation – Our industry emerges with a reputation that reflects the hugely successful projects that we complete. There is an understanding of the heightened risk, however, these days, the risk is adequately managed and controlled. · Collaboration – We share our experiences and our knowledge be it via our Conferences, Our Special Industry Groups and our Webinars so that we all grow and learn of new technology and how challenges were overcome. A couple of updates on the Society: · Our next No Dig Conference (Sydney, March ’22) is shaping up to be a huge success. I’m told the technical
12 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
papers are coming together well and the conference booths are almost sold. Look out for the Training Courses that we will be running. · Our Webinars are going well, however, we are always looking for good speakers and good content. Please reach out if you would like to present and we encourage you to attend on the screen and hopefully in person in 2022! · Our Special Industry Groups are going well and they are achieving their respective industry goals. Again, please reach out if you would like to form a group to achieve something for our industry. The Society will happily support you with resources for beneficial industry outcomes. · The ASTT Council is working on our strategic plan actions, which will continue to improve member benefits, better support the industry and generally improve the way we interact and engage with the trenchless community. On behalf of the ASTT I take this opportunity to thank a number of groups for their contributions over the last 30 years: · Our members are the reason the Society exists. Their contributions to the ASTT have been fantastic, through attending and supporting conferences, exhibitions, seminars and reading our newsletters and magazines. · To all of the ASTT state and territory Councillors that have contributed over the years, I thank you on behalf of the Society for your voluntary efforts. To have been, or to become a Councillor for the ASTT, you have demonstrated your passion for the trenchless technology industry. · Our conference and media partner in Prime Creative Media, who through special editions such as this, regular magazine editions, website information, and conferences and exhibition management, have demonstrated their passion for this industry. Their vision has allowed the Society to promote and educate the trenchless message better than ever. I commend this book in recognising the fantastic milestone of 30 years for the ASTT. May there be many more to come!
Ben Crosby ASTT President
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SECRETARY’S REPORT
Secretary’s Report D
epite the COVID-19 issues that have impacted on all of us, this 30th anniversary book summarises the tremendous growth that the ASTT has achieved since being incorporated back in 1991. As the inaugural ASTT Secretary, I am thrilled to be able to present to you this wonderful edition of the complete resource for members of ASTT and the wider underground construction industry, this being the 30th Anniversary edition of the ASTT’s history. I am sure that you will find the information contained within extremely useful. The ASTT was formed in 1991 to promote the use and development of trenchless technology in the Australasian region. Since its founding, the society has been affiliated with the International Society for Trenchless Technology (ISTT) along with dozens of other affiliated societies. The ISTT family has also grown from a few societies in 1986 to now 27 across the globe. Recently we have completed a comprehensive review of all the work necessary to redevelop our Strategic Plan. I am pleased to advise you all that this action is now complete and now the work begins to implement the changes that should bring the ASTT to the forefront. A few significant changes at the higher level are the changes to our Vision. This now is changed to “Leading trenchless technology throughout Australasia”. Also, our Mission was updated to “Influence and support industry in Australasia to realise the benefits of trenchless technology.” Your Council is now working tirelessly to achieve the actions now laid out in our Strategic Plan. You can view the Strategic Plan by visiting our new website, refer: https:// www.astt.com.au/strategic-plan/ . The ASTT will continue to promote the advancement of Trenchless Technology in Australia and New Zealand by being; ethical, impartial, innovative, inclusive, and visionary. Our network of Councillors, one of whom is located in each state and territory of Australia, as well as one councillor for New Zealand, are all onboard to ensure the actions laid out in the Strategic Plan are fulfilled within the designated timeframes.
14 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Our membership structure has also recently changed from just Corporate or Individual to now prospective members being offered a selection of 6 options that best suits their needs. ASTT membership now comprises these new categories ranging from Gold Corporate to student members located throughout Australia and New Zealand. Most of our members work in the trenchless industry in some way or are involved in the provision of utilities such as gas, water, wastewater, electricity and telecommunications. For these utility networks, trenchless technology is a vital component for the installation, rehabilitation or maintenance of infrastructure. Membership is available to consultants, contractors, material and equipment manufacturers, public authorities at all levels of government, and those engaged in research and development for underground systems. For more information on ASTT membership, visit: www.astt.com.au/astt-membership/ . Another major change was the complete redesign of our website. The new site is split into two areas with the opening page and its contents being made available to anyone, and the other area is for members only and requires a logon to access it. Since we have established this new look and feel, our website is being visited much more than in the past. COVID-19 has also impacted our very popular trenchless forums. The ASTT is now delivering webinars on a monthly basis to anyone who is interested in watching them. Members can view these at any time by going through the ASTT website, members only area. Since beginning these in July 2020, and despite several teething issues, we have delivered 14 webinars. Once again, I hope that you enjoy this Anniversary booklet.
Jeff Pace ASTT Secretary
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PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Past Presidents ASTT Presidents
1991 – 2009 Menno Henneveld
2009 – 2015 Trevor Gosatti
2017 – 2020 Chris Frangos
2020 - Present Ben Crosby
ASTT Secretary/ Treasurer
1991 - Present Jeffrey Pace
20 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
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ASTT AWARD WINNERS
ASTT Award Winners 2019
2017
2013
Rehabilitation Project of the Year This award recognises innovation, advancements in technology, environmental benefits and occupational health and safety benefits in rehabilitation projects using trenchless technology. Winner: Eastern Force Main Rehabilitation – Interflow and City of Gold Coast and Melbourne Water.
Rehabilitation Project of the Year Winner: Abergeldie Watertech - rehabilitation of the Balmain South Eastern Slopes Submain (BSESS).
Rehabilitation Project of the Year Winner: Kembla Watertech - The Sydney CBD, Bennelong Stormwater Chanel Rehabilitation.
New Installation Project of the Year This award recognises innovation, advancements in technology, environmental benefits and occupational health and safety benefits in new installation projects using trenchless technology. Winner: Caloundra Sewerage Transport System – Pipeline Drillers and Unitywater New Technology: Machine, Tool, Material, System or Technique This award recognises the practical development of trenchless systems or equipment that result in benefits such as improved economy, accuracy, speed of drive or replacement, ability to overcome difficult installations, or similar. Winner: Herrenknecht – Direct Pipe®. ASTT Person of the Year This award recognises an individual (aged 37 or over) who has made major and sustained contributions to the trenchless industry. The winner will have gone above and beyond the call of duty to grow, develop and promote the use of trenchless technology across Australasia and the world. Winner: Geoff Weaver, Managing Director, Interflow. ASTT Young Person of the Year This award recognises the important role younger members (aged 36 or under) of the Australasian trenchless community play in the growth of the industry by engaging and promoting the technology, making significant contributions over the past two years. Winners: Jeroen Wassenaar, Market Segment Manager, Qenos & Punam Halai, Principal Civil Engineer, AECOM New Zealand.
22 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
New Installation Project of the Year Winner: Unitywater - Noosa River Drill project. New Technology: Machine, Tool, Material, System or Technique Winner: Aussie Trenchless Supplies - HOT SLEEVE. ASTT Person of the Year Winner: Jim Shooter, NSW Manager, Pezzimenti Tunnelbore. ASTT Young Person of the Year Winner: Glen Wakelin, Managing Director, Suresearch.
2015 Rehabilitation Project of the Year Winner: Interflow and Queensland Urban Utilities - Rehabilitation of a critical selection of the S1 sewer. New Installation Project of the Year Winner: John Holland - Woolloongabba Trunk Sewer Upgrade. New Technology: Machine, Tool, Material, System or Technique Winner: Abergeldie Watertech Scotchkote Liner 2400. ASTT Person of the Year Winner: Lance Horlyck, SAS TTI Joint Venture.
New Installation Project of the Year Winner: COE Drilling - Gladstone Harbour Crossing project. New Technology: Machine, Tool, Material, System or Technique Winner: COE Drilling - Intersect Technology and Gyroscopic Steering. ASTT Person of the Year Winner: Aurelio Pezzimenti, Pezzimenti Tunnelbore. ASTT Young Person of the Year Winner: Joe Alphonse, Kembla Watertech.
2011 Rehabilitation Project of the Year Winner: Water Infrastructure Group for Sydney Water - Bondi Ocean Outfall Sewer Rehabilitation project. New Installation Project of the Year Winner: Pipelines Alliance for Melbourne Water - Sandgate Avenue Drain Flood Mitigation project. ASTT Person of the Year Winner: Andris Krumins, Manager Infrastructure Planning, Queensland Urban Utilities. ASTT Young Person of the Year Winner: Daniel Gamboa, General Manager Asia Pacific Rehabilitation with Insituform Technologies.
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BEFORE THE ASTT
Before the ASTT The ASTT was formed in 1991, after a two-day conference in 1989 established that there was a significant potential market for Trenchless Technology. Here we look at the development of the trenchless industry that led to the need to establish the ASTT.
T
renchless Technology came to use in Australasia throughout the 1960s (camera inspections and relining), 1970s (HDD and pipe bursting) and 1980s (microtunnelling). Since that time, the industry has experienced massive growth, and with the industry so well established today, it begs the question – what did we do before trenchless technology? To a certain extent, trenchless technology has developed out of a need for the various technologies. As a result of their development, some trenchless technologies have enabled projects to be completed that would have previously been impossible – such as shore crossings with HDD, and the rehabilitation of long, large diameter sewers and pipelines. As many of the legends of our industry have noted, innovation often comes where there is a need for it. Looking back, it is quite obvious that industry needed to develop the technologies that are now commonplace in order to maintain and continue operating the basic services that many of us take for granted. Some of the rehabilitation techniques now widely available are examples of this. CCTV pioneer David Slingsby recalls that back in the 1950s, he used to find small leaks in the steel water well casing of ageing pipes, which could be up to 4,000 feet deep, and rehabilitate them using a liner or expandable patch. “It could take weeks to complete and was very ‘hit and miss’,” Mr Slingsby said. “In those days, it would have 28 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
been great to have a camera.” In saying this, there are also many examples of trenchless technology improving on existing ways of doing things. Again, HDD has provided an alternative to open cut trenching for the installation of pipelines and cables. HDD legend Peter Brown recalled the time before drilling rigs were commonplace in Australia. “I think the major thing is, before the drilling rigs we have today, some of the jobs completed were, environmentally, absolutely horrific. “The advent of directional drills was nothing but a positive.” As the technology has developed, and as increasing value is placed on minimising environmental damage and community disruption, the HDD sector has been perfectly positioned to provide clients with a better method of new utility installation. Similarly, before auger boring and microtunnelling made its way down under, jobs were completed by open trenching, or long and arduous tunnelling processes. Aurelio Pezzimenti, seen by many as a ‘father’ of the Australian boring sector, recalls the time before the hightech machines as being very hard work, with picks, shovels and explosives the only available equipment.
complete section of pipeline. After this early success with sliplining, the biggest slipline in the Southern Hemisphere was then completed Down Under in 1971. For this project, 6 km of sewer located up to 30 m below ground, in Newfarm, Brisbane, was sliplined with HDPE pipe using power winches. ACI Nylex used technology from Vink & Heugland of Finland to make the 700–900 mm pipe, and Brisbane City Council slipped it into the existing sewer with great success. The 1970s also saw the first HDD projects underway in Australasia. This was when Esso Australia engaged an American contractor to assist with a difficult pipeline installation. By the 1980s, HDD was being used more widely across Australasia before the telecommunications developments in the 1990s. In the 1980s, the relining sector continued to grow, with increasingly complex and innovative projects being undertaken. In 1984, the world’s first spirally wound reline was completed in Brisbane. In the middle of the CBD, a 150 m section of 9 inch pipe was successfully spirally wound. The technology was again used to reline a section of a severely damaged concrete sewer – highlighting just how impressive this new technology was.
EARLY TRENCHLESS PROJECTS
As trenchless technology came into use around Australasia, the industry was also growing in prominence globally. The first international No-Dig Down Under conference was staged in London in 1985, and the ISTT was established the following year. By 1989, the reach of trenchless technology down under had expanded further, with Trevor Matthews and Jim Shooter working with Sydney Water to introduce various technologies through a program that engaged the then chairman of ISTT, Ted Flaxman. With the technologies creating a significant buzz around the nation, in October 1989 a Technical Subcommittee of the Water Resources Council conducted a two-day seminar on trenchless technology in Perth. A panel discussion with delegates at the end of the seminar agreed that an Australian society should be formed – and in March 1991 the ASTT was officially incorporated.
In the 1960s, the first camera inspections of sewers were carried out after an innovative camera was purchased from Canadian company Garnet. Attached to cables, it was inserted down sewer manholes and winched along by cables, with an operator able to click to take a photo at desired intervals. The 1960s also saw the first trenchless pipeline and sewer rehabilitation projects in Australasia. These were completely innovative and groundbreaking projects that set the path for the development of the Trenchless Technology industry today. In 1968, the first reline of a significantly sized Australian sewer took place. Using PVCu pipe developed by Vinlon, a 1.6 km section of the 375 mm Chermside Branch Sewer was successfully sliplined. With just one manhole, sections of the pipe were inserted and winched by hand in both directions to create a
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HISTORY
History of the ASTT
I
n October 1989, a Technical Sub Committee of the Water Resources Council conducted a two-day seminar on Trenchless Technology in Perth, Western Australia. A panel discussion at the end of the seminar with some 170 delegates from around Australia and New Zealand agreed that an independent Australian Society for Trenchless Technology should be formed. The society was to become established independent of other professional bodies and related societies such as the Institution of Engineers, Australia; the Australian Underground and Construction Tunnelling Association (AUCTA); the Australian Water and Wastewater Association (AWWA); the Australian Drilling Industry Association (ADIA); and the Federation of Australian Construction Contractors. Although these organisations had some members with an interest in Trenchless Technology the specialised nature of the Trenchless Technology industry suggested the new Society should stand alone. The Australian Society for Trenchless Technology (ASTT) was formed in 1991 and was affiliated with the International Society for Trenchless Technology (ISTT) in the same year. ASTT became Incorporated (Registered Number 1001093) in Perth, Western Australia on 11 March 1991. On 28 June 1994, the name of the Society
30 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
was changed to the Australasian Society for Trenchless Technology, enabling membership to include those living in New Zealand. The distinctive ASTT logo was amended to show both Australia and New Zealand. ASTT grew from a modest membership of 35 when inaugurated, to some 200 members in 2021. Originally there were two classifications of membership: Corporate and Individual. These two categories increased to six levels of membership, namely Gold Corporate, Silver Corporate, Asset Owners, Individual, Young Professional, Retired Individual and Tertiary Education Institutions. Members belonging to these categories within the trenchless industry are mainly represented in the areas of contracting, manufacturing, support services, education and a wide range of private and Government client organisations. The growth in ASTT membership has reflected the growth of trenchless technology in Australia and New Zealand. With ASTT having the highest membership of any of the affiliated societies on a per capita basis, the Society continues to provide a focal point for the continued development and application of trenchless technology in Australia and New Zealand. The scope of the trenchless technology Industry in Australia and New Zealand is
significant. There is an enormous investment in infrastructure associated with small and large diameter cables, conduits and pipelines in Australia and New Zealand. These assets have been conservatively estimated to be worth AU$250 billion, and include the water, wastewater, power, gas, telecommunications and oil industries in both these countries. The growth, repair, renovation and refurbishment of this asset base provided an estimated AU$500 million turnover in 2021. Although this represents a very small proportion of the total annual expenditure on renovation, replacement, and new infrastructure, it is significant in terms of its influence and impact, as it represents the many programs and projects realising the ever-growing range of benefits trenchless technology has to offer. Since inauguration, the objectives of ASTT have been to: · Advance the science and practice of trenchless technology for the public benefit. · Provide a forum in Australia and New Zealand for interchange of multi disciplinary knowledge and skills in the field of trenchless technology. · Arrange or sponsor meetings, conferences and symposia on subjects consistent with the objectives of the Society · Encourage the interchange of specialists
in Trenchless Technology within Australia and New Zealand. · Liaise and establish affiliations with related organisations, both within Australia, New Zealand and overseas. · Inform and advise the public and Government on matters concerned with trenchless technology. · Encourage education, training and research. The Society endeavours to achieve its objectives through a number of strategies including: · National Conferences and Exhibitions. · National Seminars/Trenchless Forums/ Trenchless Webinars. · Membership growth and benefits. · Introduce new digital practices. · Promote engagement with Asset owners and Government. · Develop training programs. · Update Guidelines and Standards. · Special Interest Groups dealing with specific key issues. · Trenchless Australasia Magazine · E-Newsletters. · Participation on local and national government working groups. To this end, in 2019 we employed Focalise Consulting to guide us through the redevelopment of our Strategic Plan which resulted in a new Strategic Direction for the
ASTT in moving towards the Year 2024. Key changes included a new vision which now reads as “Leading trenchless technology throughout Australasia.” Also, the Mission for the ASTT was updated to “Influence and support industry in Australasia to realise the benefits of trenchless technology”. The ASTT’s key focus areas remain unchanged: Our Members, Promotion, Training and Education, Industry Best Practice and A Sustainable Society. The plan can be viewed on the ASTT website, refer https:// www.astt.com.au/strategic-plan/ . The ASTT entered an agreement with Pipeline Publications Australia, now Prime Creative Media, in August 2004 whereby this company would produce the societies Trenchless Australasia magazine as well as manage all our major events. There have now been some 69 quarterly editions of the ASTT’s flagship trenchless magazine to the membership. As well as producing the magazines for the members, our events partner has assisted us with delivering our conferences. To date there has been some 13 National Exhibition and Conferences as well as two International NoDig Down Under conferences. All of these events have been extremely well attended and successful for the ASTT. The ASTT in light of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in Greater
Sydney, and the uncertainties surrounding the relaxing of restrictions and travel zones both nationally and internationally, was forced to postpone Sydney No-Dig Down Under 2021 to the new dates of 8-11 March 2022. The exhibition and sponsorships for this prestigious event are now sold out which is a testament to the industry. Unfortunately, also due to the COVID-19 issues that impacted all travel and social gatherings over 2020 – 2021, the ASTT was forced to cancel its trenchless forums. Taking the place of these are the series of webinars which have proved to be very successful also. By the end of 2021, the ASTT presented some 14 monthly webinars at no charge to participants. In summary, the ASTT is now going full speed ahead to ensure that we have the society of choice and that we continue to provide membership value to our valued members. The next 30 years will no doubt be quite different as new tools become available to us to use. The association has started using LinkedIn which is one such tool for the promotion of trenchless technology to the community. The ASTT expects by the year 2035 we will possibly have a dedicated CEO and fully equipped office with staff located somewhere in Australia or New Zealand. It can only get better from here.
ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 31
TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY
Embracing trenchless technology In Australasia, the use of various trenchless techniques has developed as the need for installation and repair techniques has increased. Conventional pipe-cracking, or pipe-bursting, and horizontal boring techniques for new infrastructure installations have had a considerable history and success; and pipe rehabilitation and renovation has been in use for decades in the region.
T
he scope of the industry in Australia and New Zealand is significant. There is an enormous investment in infrastructure associated with small diameter cables, conduits and pipelines. The successful establishment of the trenchless industry in Australasia has been supported and promoted by the peak industry organisation. The ASTT was incorporated in 1991, and has been affiliated with the ISTT since that time. In the early to mid-1990s, the majority of trenchless work was undertaken by or for larger authorities or organisations. This may be attributed to the relatively high initial costs involved and the ability to accept some of the perceived risk involved in utilising the new technology. Since that time, as more work has been undertaken and more industry players have become involved, unit costs have generally decreased and proven track records have been established. Authorities and other organisations have come to appreciate the benefits of Trenchless Technology, resulting in a wide embrace of the innovative techniques. In the early 2000s in particular, the use of Trenchless Technology in the installation and renewal of underground infrastructure such as pipelines, sewers and electrical cables, to name but a few, greatly increased. What was once used only occasionally has now become the preferred method. Organisations like Sydney Water, who have integrated Trenchless Technology into their annual report, highlight the growing importance Trenchless Technology plays within councils and utilities around Australasia. The growth of Trenchless Technology has been assisted by increased awareness of the technology and its capabilities, improving economies of scale, and rising concerns for sustainable and environmentally-friendly construction solutions. Further, maintaining ageing infrastructure is an issue of increasing importance as crucial assets approach the end of their design service life – and in the increasingly congested urban environment, new solutions are required to tackle this problem. Trenchless Technology is the solution to many of the problems that Australia and New Zealand are
32 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
currently facing; a tightening global credit market and economic slowdown means that every dollar counts and Trenchless Technology is no longer an expensive alternative, but instead offers many ways to do more with less. Trenchless techniques also reduce the carbon footprint of many infrastructure projects and have an important role to play in promoting sustainability. Ongoing water shortages also underline the importance of asset management to ensure that precious water resources are saved. For all these reasons and more, Trenchless Technology is the preferred choice. As utilities and private companies continue to recognise these advantages, the industry will grow, mature and provide ever more innovative underground solutions throughout Australasia. The development and use of Trenchless Technology will continue to grow as it provides effective and beneficial solutions to these demands and controls, and an increasing awareness of the need for environmentallyfriendly, sustainable construction methods. Reflecting the strong market for Trenchless Technology in Australasia, a number of national and international events have been staged in Australia to showcase Trenchless Technology. The first ASTT National Conference and Exhibition was held in Melbourne in 1992, with events in Sydney in 1994, Perth in 1996 and Brisbane in 1998. In 2000, the International No-Dig Conference and Exhibition was held in Australia for the first time, in Perth. Another boost to the industry as a whole came in 2004 with the launch of Trenchless Australasia, a quarterly magazine dedicated solely to Trenchless Technology in Australia and New Zealand. The large range of innovative equipment from around the world allowed attendees to see firsthand how the machinery works and showcased the importance of using Trenchless Technology. On 3 October, 2011, the ASTT Executive met in Brisbane to undertake a Strategic Thinking Workshop. The main purpose of this workshop was to take a good look at where the ASTT has come from over the past 20 years, and
to identify options/ideas for the ASTT to move forward over the next five or so years. 2015 marked the year an agreement was signed between the ASTT and the NASTT, giving the ASTT permission to present some of its best practice training courses in Australasia. The national conference and exhibition was held from 8-11 September at the Gold Coast, with three NASTT training courses being delivered and Special Interest Groups (SIG’s) introduced. Members were invited to provide input for a new strategic plan, with a draft being developed later on in 2019. In 2020 the world was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in the ASTT’s AGM, scheduled to occur in Melbourne, being held online, as well as all forums cancelled. On 23 July 2020 the ASTT undertook its first webinar - Water main renewal – they’re under pressure and the clock is ticking - which was well attended and is now delivered on a monthly basis. From 31 March 2021, Prime Creative Media acquired the Trenchless Australasia magazine and the management of the upcoming Sydney No-Dig Down Under event, from Great Southern Press. However, the Sydney conference and exhibition scheduled for 5 – 8 October, 2021 was postponed to March 2022 due to COVID-19 issues. For the most part, areas of the industry responsible for providing essential infrastructure, such as for public health and energy, have embraced the social, environmental and cost benefits that Trenchless Technology provides. High technology industries providing communications and entertainment infrastructure have identified the use of some trenchless techniques as a preferred method to achieve rapid and wide expansion with substantial cost savings. As the community places an increasing demand on infrastructure systems and regulators exert more in influence to improve and rationalise infrastructure systems to meet environmental and regulatory requirements, the need to provide new infrastructure and upgrade existing systems will continue to increase – providing Trenchless Technology with the chance to truly shine.
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Trenchless Technology through the years:
1991-2021
36 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The following pages provide you with an account of the ASTT, and the Australasian Trenchless Technology industry as a whole, through the years 1991 to 2021.
Each year features several pages dedicated to covering the key people, companies, and projects of the year in words and images.
Whether these pages offer you the chance to reminisce on the jobs you’ve worked on and the people you’ve met over the years, or whether they offer an insight into the industry you might not have otherwise gleaned, here it is – the ASTT and Trenchless Technology in Australasia, from 1991 to 2021.
ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 37
ASTT HISTORY
Assembling the TBM in Malabar transfer station. Courtesy: Sydney Water.
1991
Worker inspecting tunnel insides during the project. Courtesy: Sydney Water.
38 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Aerial view of the outfall construction site. Courtesy: Sydney Water.
SYDNEY DEEPWATER OCEAN OUTFALLS With the use of tunnelling techniques, the completion of three submarine outfall tunnels in 1991 – designed to alleviate the pollution of Sydney’s famous beaches – set a benchmark for the construction of deepwater and maintenance free outfalls around the world. For decades, Sydney’s wastewater had been mechanically treated at its three main sewage treatment plants in North Head, Bondi and Malabar, and then discharged into the sea. This caused an increasing amount of pollution at Sydney’s beaches and triggered comprehensive research into new solutions. Sydney Water decided that the best option was routing the water and sewage through three tunnelled outfalls up to 4 km offshore in depths up to 80 m below the seabed, and then discharging it into the ocean through vertical outlets. Construction on the outfall tunnels commenced in 1986. The ocean floor beneath the outfalls varied from rough bare rock to smooth sediment of varying depths. It was concluded that differing methods of excavation for the tunnelling works would be appropriate in the various rock formations. For the offshore tunnels at Malabar and North Head, the use of tunnel boring machines (TBMs) was most ideal, while the Bondi offshore tunnel could be completed with either a TBM or roadheader excavation. A Robbins 133-146 TBM was converted for installation of the precast concrete segment rings at the Malabar and North Head tunnels. For advance drilling, the machine was
used for driving the tunnels. Installation of risers, diffusers and protective caissons was carried out at Malabar from September 1987 to March 1988, at Bondi from March to June in 1988 and at North Head from June to October in 1988. The Malabar tunnel was commissioned in September 1990, the North Head in December 1990 and Bondi in August 1991.
EARLY HDD IN NEW ZEALAND In 1991, New Zealand’s first HDD river crossing was successfully completed. After two failed attempts to complete a horizontal directional drilling bore under the Waikanae River, approximately 75 km north of Wellington, Humes Protective Linings of Auckland successfully completed the crossing. The 90 m crossing was needed to install fibre optic cables, part of New Zealand Telecom’s main fibre optic link between Wellington and Auckland. Previously, two attempts to bore under the river had been made. A pusher type machine was used for the first bore. When that failed, a second bore was attempted using a modified track-mounted rig normally used for tunnel work. Neither bore was successful. Humes then brought in the Melfred Borzall sure-shot directional drilling system. The equipment was used to successfully bore two 90 m crossings and install 6 inch conduits for the 5 inch fibre optic cables. Successfully completing the first HDD river crossing was a groundbreaking step in promoting the HDD industry in New Zealand.
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ASTT HISTORY
ASTT Chairman Menno Henneveld chats with representatives from the JSTT.
1992 FIRST NATIONAL ASTT CONFERENCE The first ASTT National Conference and Exhibition took place at the Radisson President Hotel in Melbourne, helping to establish the role of the ASTT – and indeed the use of trenchless technology across the country. The two-day event commenced on 28 September, and was well attended by speakers and delegates from the sewer, water, gas and telecommunications industries. ASTT Chairman Menno Henneveld opened the conference and encouraged delegates to progress and improve communication and strategy development for trenchless technology in Australia. At the time he said the future success of trenchless technology in Australia depended on discussions and contacts generated through the conference. ASTT Chairman Menno Henneveld chats with representatives from the JSTT. Menno was joined by keynote speakers ISTT Chairman Ted Flaxman and ISTT Vice-Chairman and JSTT Chairman Satoru Tohyama. The presence of these international representatives proved a real coup for the ASTT, and was instrumental in establishing the ASTT as a major player in the international trenchless technology scene. Mr Flaxman spoke about bringing the application of worldwide initiatives to the Australia, while Dr Tohyama discussed Japan’s success with trenchless technology. As the ASTT’s first official conference, the event was declared a success by delegates and the conference organisers. As a tool for bringing the industry together, and promoting the benefits of trenchless technology to a wider audience, it was highly successful. 40 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The ASTT stand at the first conference and exhibition.
EVOLUTION IN TUNNELLING The story of John Holland Tunnelling can be traced back to 1992, when Transfield purchased the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) tunnelling business. In the mid-1960s, the MMBW (now known as Melbourne Water) assembled a specialist tunnelling group to construct water and wastewater tunnels through Melbourne’s complex geological conditions. The MMBW tunnelling group completed 90 km of water and wastewater tunnels in Melbourne using tunnel boring machines (TBMs), roadheader, drill and blast, compressed air and ground freezing technologies. In 1991, around the time the ASTT was established, Melbourne Water put its tunnelling group up for sale. The sale attracted strong interest from major contractors with the sale of the tunnelling group to Transfield finalised 1 September 1992.
EARLY DAYS FOR DIRECTIONAL DRILLING The telecommunications industry provided the directional drilling industry with much work in its early days. In 1992, R & R McClure Excavation was involved in installing telecommunications lines for Optus ahead of their entry into the market. This was among the first directional drilling work to be undertaken in the country.
EXPANDA ARRIVES The Rib Loc pipe-making process was invented in the 1980s by the pioneering Bill Menzel. Expanda was the first spiral wound
rehabilitation product to be developed by Rib Loc and was first installed in Australia during the early 1990s. After its initial experience with Expanda in 1991, Interflow continued using the innovative system and subsequently established an exclusivity agreement with Rib Loc. Interflow (known as Pipeline Rehabilitation at the time) was able to secure projects in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria using the system. In the early years, the Expanda system was used for renewing pipes with diameters of 225 – 600 mm. Interflow was expanding its customer base with this pipe relining system and the company, together with Rib Loc, continued to improve the Expanda installation process. In late 1992, many alternatives were assessed using test pipes in Interflow’s factory. A successful grouting process was finally developed just before Christmas. The Water Board confirmed the suitability of the proposed system which allowed Interflow to carry out its first Sydney Water Board contracts in 1993. These projects involved almost 5.5 km of sewer pipe relining for diameters of 300 – 525 mm. Rib Loc, in partnership with Interflow, was able to produce the Expanda 56EX profile, which was specifically designed for 150 mm diameter pipelines. The 56EX profile enabled Interflow to increase its trenchless technology offerings by providing a cost-effective solution for all common pipe diameters. As a result of these early developments and working closely with clients such as Sydney Water and Yarra Valley Water, Interflow has ensured its place at the forefront of the pipe renewal market in Australia.
enquiries@marchcato.co.nz +64 9-835 3800
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NEW ZEALAND’S EXPERTS IN TRENCHLESS CONSTRUCTION March Cato is an award-winning, Auckland (New Zealand), based civil engineering construction company, specialising in tunnelling, pipe jacking, deep open trenches, sheet piling and shaft construction for the three waters sector.
We’re recognised as a leading civil engineering contracting firm with an enviable reputation for:
“Specialising in the construction of three waters infrastructure”
• Developing in implementing innovative methodologies and techniques • A knowledgeable, professional and technically skilled team • An approachable, focused and down to earth project management team • Excellent health and safety, quality and environmental standards • Responsive and pro-active customer service and communication • Working in partnership alongside clients to achieve the best outcomes for all stakeholders
ASTT HISTORY
1993
Vermeer was established in Pella, Iowa, in 1948, and arrived in the Australian market in 1989.
EX METHOD LINING
The Robbins hard rock TBM at the Katoomba Carrier Tunnel in the Blue Mountains achieved three TBM world records, all of which still stand.
The Ex Method fold and formed lining system was first used in Australia in 1993. Kembla Watertech Managing Director Chris Meredith first became aware of the innovative technology in 1992. Mr Meredith immediately saw a huge potential for its use in Australia and, after signing a licence agreement with the Japanese owners of the technology, imported the Ex Method technology into Australia. The Ex Method involves winching a softened and ‘folded’ length of specially formulated PVC pipe into the sewer through existing access chambers. Steam injectors are then fitted to each end of the Ex pipe so that steam and pressure can be applied internally to expand and ‘form’ the Ex pipe liner tightly against the host pipe. In June 1993, Kembla installed the first Ex pipe liner into a 1500 mm sewer in the suburb of Corrimal, an area south of Sydney. The client, Sydney Water, was seeking a trenchless method of rehabilitating its assets and contracted Kembla Watertech to install Ex Method liner into 91 m of sewer pipe. The process was watched by an eager crowd of Sydney Water personnel, and the lining was installed without a hitch in less than four hours.
INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS MAKE THEIR WAY DOWN UNDER
The first Ex Method reline.
42 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
As the Australasian trenchless market began to grow, major international players such as Vermeer began to establish themselves in the emerging market. Vermeer was established in Pella, Iowa, in 1948, and arrived in the Australian market in 1989. The company introduced its extensive range of trenchless equipment to Australian contractors in 1993. Since its inception, Vermeer has grown from a one-person operation to an international organisation that manufactures, distributes, sells and services a huge range of machinery. In addition to providing some of the highest quality equipment available in the market, Vermeer delivers top quality parts at superior
prices. Vermeer parts are manufactured to exacting specifications to help keep equipment running trouble free. As well as replacement items for machinery, Vermeer Australia also carries a huge range of consumable supplies and accessories from market leading supplies like Baroid Industrial Drilling Fluids and Sherrill Tree Care arborist supplies. Workshop technicians undergo a continuous training program, designed to keep them up to date with the latest Vermeer machinery.
EPIC TUNNELLING IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS In 1993, the idyllic and environmentally sensitive Blue Mountains located northwest of Sydney became the site for one of Australia’s largest sewerage upgrades. The 13.4 km Katoomba Carrier tunnel was to be one of the longest single-drive tunnel boring machine (TBM) tunnels at the time. The resulting excavation achieved world record advance rates for any TBM of any size, which still stand today, nearly two decades later. The Katoomba Carrier tunnel employed a 3.4 m diameter Robbins TBM between 1993 and 1996. The tunnelling was part of the country’s first ‘BOOT’ project, a ‘Build-Own-Operate-Transfer’ scheme for the New South Wales Government. The 35-year concession contract was awarded to a joint venture of McConnell Dowell and Japanese contractor Obayashi. The TBM was launched in 1993 and began boring through competent rock. Much of the success, according to the contractors, came in choosing the right equipment for the geology. The design decision to make the project one continuous tunnel likely led to improved advance rates, though it was not the first choice. An original proposal specified several tunnels with intermittent portals to shorten TBM drives to several miles each. After TBM excavation, the tunnel was linked up with the existing Hazelbrook sewer tunnel, between 1991 and 1993.
ASTT HISTORY
1994 NEW ZEALAND JOINS THE ASTT In 1994, the ASTT officially changed its name to the Australasian Society for Trenchless Technology, allowing members from New Zealand to join the organisation. In the lead up to the change it was becoming apparent that Trenchless Technology was being used more in New Zealand, with those involved with the various technologies – whether as suppliers, contractors or utilities – looking for a voice for the issues they faced in their use of Trenchless Technology. With the then Australian Society for Trenchless Technology already established and servicing growing numbers of members
The WA Infill Sewerage Program began in 1994 as a way to connect homes to a central wastewater system.
44 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Workers demonstrating the use of trenchless techniques.
across Australia each year, in these early days for New Zealand’s trenchless technology industry, it made sense to join forces with the Australian Society and create an Australasian Society to service the region as a whole. It was agreed that Australia and New Zealand have similar problems of geographic spread, and a great potential existed for a joint approach to the development and implementation of Trenchless Technology.
HDD CONTINUES TO GROW As the HDD industry in Australia began to establish itself, more companies began offering directional drilling services to their underground clients. One such company was BTB Australia, an underground utility contractor established in 1958. With a broad history involving successes on all manner of pipeline projects, the company established its directional drilling branch in 1994. BTB put an expert team in place, and went on to be involved in some of the country’s biggest projects, including the cable television rollouts in Sydney and Melbourne – which involved installing the Telstra network to thousands of homes in capital cities and country areas using HDD. Since then BTB’s HDD fleet, personnel and capabilities have expanded and the company has installed pipelines using HDD on many major pipeline projects across Australia. These include gas, water, sewer and electricity installations, and major upgrades of rail and airport infrastructure. Of particular note is the HDD installation of a pressure sewer system in Flinders, Victoria. BTB Australia has always maintained a good working relationship with its clientele over many years, and cemented excellent working ties at all levels of management and staff.
WA INFILL SEWERAGE PROGRAM There was no better time to encourage the use of Trenchless Technology in Western Australia than on one of the state’s largest infrastructure projects. The Infill Sewerage Program began in 1994 as a way to connect homes to a central wastewater system. As many areas of Western Australia were developed between 1950 and 1975, the use of septic tanks and leach drains were largely implemented for wastewater disposal. The program was introduced to reduce the potential for health and environmental risks by capturing and treating wastewater in a more modern and safe way. Eliminating the use of septic tanks meant removing the potential threat they pose to groundwater, bird and animal life and the ecosystem. Before the program began, 25 per cent of Perth properties and 40 per cent of country properties were using septic tanks. This figure is compared to an average of 4 per cent in capital cities in the eastern states. While open-cut trenching was used at the start of the program, the Water Corporation heavily encouraged trenchless techniques, especially the use of microtunnelling, due to the large costs associated with restoring gardens and streetscapes when open-cut trenching was used. Initially, two research and development projects were developed in Yokine to trial the use of guided boring. The contracts were awarded to Underground Services Australia and DJ & MB MacCormick and involved laying approximately 1 km of pipe. The Water Corporation said the results were encouraging. At the start of the program, about 3 per cent of work carried out utilised trenchless techniques and it was mostly associated with boring large sewer mains under major roads and rivers. The use of trenchless has grown dramatically since.
“Since the 1940’s, we have worked side-by-side with utility contractors singularly focused on making utility installations more productive. Through our unwavering commitment to innovation, production of American made best-in-class HDD tools, and providing unparalleled support, we have thrived in an industry we love for the past 75 years. Thank you to all the drillers, our distributors, and our family of employees that have helped steer our business and products in the best direction.” - Dick, Eric, & Peter Melsheimer Owners, Melfred Borzall
1946 2021
ASTT HISTORY
sector, distributing the Rail Head aggressive steering head. At the time, this was the first steering head that could cut through hard ground – and while this is commonplace now, at the time it was revolutionary. JB Sales has also been the Australasian distributor for Astec and American Augers HDD equipment. In 2008, JB Sales International merged with BAS Engineering in New Zealand and became known as JB Attachments. Recently, the expanded company has established a relationship with GoodEng for the sale of Chinese rigs in our region. With a strong history in Trenchless Technology the future continues to look bright for JB Attachments.
Record-breaking spirally wound pipe at the North Georges River Submain.
SYDNEY WATER
1995
46 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
PAY TV BOOSTS HDD SECTOR The rollout of pay television in Australia in 1995 gave the HDD sector the boost it needed to really take off and thrive as it does today. For many companies working in the sector, it was an exciting time. This was certainly the case for JB Sales International, which had been selling HDD rigs and equipment in Australia and New Zealand since the 1980s – including the first pneumatic pipe cracking machines to Sydney Water and WA Water. As many in the HDD sector will recall, contracts for the rollout of the cable television network specified that cabling needed to pass a certain number of houses by a specific date – resulting in a massive amount of work in a concentrated period of time. Telstra turned to the trenchless industry in order to meet these contractual requirements, and it was a boom time for the industry and those working in it. For JB Sales, the contract – and increased interest in HDD rigs and equipment – came after a decade of supplying Tracto-Technik Grundomat and Grundodrill equipment to contractors across Australasia. As a founding member of the ASTT, JB Sales was well positioned to provide products and experience to meet the growing demand for trenchless equipment. As the industry continued to develop post-1995, JB Sales further expanded its product line, becoming the Australian distributor for BorMor HDD equipment and eventually Case Horizontal Directional Drills. In 1996, the company introduced BorMor’s first HDD rig with a hydrostatic hydraulic pump, representing a first for the industry Down Under. In 1998, the company introduced another first for the HDD
Sydney Water services an area of approximately 12,700 km across Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains. Since implementing a range of trenchless methods in its operations, the organisation has reaped significant benefits – including international awards – for its innovation. Sydney Water supplies water, wastewater, recycled water and some stormwater services to more than 4.4 million people every day. Sydney Water’s water supply network sources raw water from eleven major dams owned by the Sydney Catchment Authority. The water is then treated at one of Sydney Water’s nine filtration plants or its desalination plant. More than 1.6 billion litres of drinking water is distributed through a network of 21,000 km of water pipes, 265 reservoirs and 171 pumping stations. Households use approximately 70 per cent of the water supplied, while businesses use the remainder. Sydney Water also collects over 1.5 billion litres of wastewater a day from 29 sewage treatment plants. The water is treated through 24,000 km of wastewater pipes, 670 pumping stations, 13 water recycling plants and 16 treatment plants. Sydney Water has said by changing from trenched to trenchless methods, where possible, the organisation has been able to significantly reduce the amount of spoil created during pipeline construction and network renewal projects. Sydney Water’s civil maintenance group avoids waste by using pipe bursting and small bores on open trench water main renewals where appropriate. As a result, 5,800 tonnes of waste was avoided from pipe bursting and 490 tonnes from small bores on open trench water mains in 2007 to 2008. Meanwhile, relining old sewers has prevented approximately 6,000 tonnes of potential waste generation. The main trenchless techniques used on projects by Sydney Water include – but are not limited to – relining, cured-in-place pipe, applying epoxy mortar coating, horizontal directional drilling, tunnelling and microtunnelling.
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ASTT HISTORY
Preparations to tunnel on Perth’s desalination project.
1996
48 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
City of Perth gridlocked at night.
WATER CORPORATION The Water Corporation supplies water, wastewater and drainage services to properties across Western Australia – one third of the Australian landscape. With the responsibility of providing services to nearly two million people, the water authority has embraced the benefits of applying trenchless techniques. The Water Corporation was established on 1 January 1996, under the Water Corporation Act 1995, and operates under a 25-year licence issued by the Office of Water Regulation. The organisation manages approximately 33,186 km of water mains, 15,199 km of sewer mains and 2,835 km of drains. The Water Corporation’s other assets also include 102 dam weirs, 488 pump stations, 266 treatment plants and 105 wastewater treatment plants. It also manages more than $A13 billion in water supply, wastewater, drainage infrastructure and bulk water for irrigation. Of its drainage infrastructure, the Water Corporation looks after approximately 2,250 km of rural main drains and 828 km of metropolitan drains. The organisation diverts water from more than 400,000 hectares of land to prevent flooding and waterlogging of approximately 260,000 properties. The Water Corporation has encouraged the innovation and experimentation of trenchless methods over the years through a range of capital works projects. Notably, it embarked on one of the state’s biggest single programs ever undertaken when it began the Infill Sewerage Program in 1994. While the use of trenchless techniques was 3 per cent of the work at the start, the Water Corporation realised the inconvenience and cost of restoration involved with opencut trenching. The organisation encouraged contractors to research boring techniques
and tried to draw attention to the project in a number of ways. These included displaying at trenchless and plumbing exhibits as well as offering contracts specifically targeting the use of no-dig. Other projects across Western Australia have implemented microtunnelling, cured-in-place pipe, horizontal directional drilling, boring, relining, pipe bursting and the surveying of pipelines using remotely operated inspection vehicles. Some of the projects include: • An $A600,000 project to a construct a 250 mm sewer pipe involving the use of boring under North Lake Road. • The St Georges Terrace Sewer Refurbishment Project, involving the CIPP lining of a 650 m stretch of oviform sewer pipes. • Refurbishing nearly 4 km of sewer main in Guildford, Bassendean and Cottesloe, using existing pipes as a conduit for new pipe work. • Refurbishing smaller reticulation sewers in parts of South Perth, Fremantle, Como, Mosman Park, Nedlands, Cottesloe and Maylands. • The communications line from Perth to Geraldton, which included the use of HDD on more than 7 km. • Relining Fremantle’s century-old sewer main. • Constructing a 4.4 km section of sewer pipe in the northern suburbs of Perth, using microtunnelling. • The Perth desalination project, which included four microtunnels as part of pipeline construction. • The Water Corporation’s services and projects span more than 2.4 million square km and looks after more than 1.1 million properties. The Water Corporation’s services, projects and activities span more than 2.4 million square km and looks after more than 1.1 million properties.
ASTT HISTORY
RIB LOC TAKES HOME AUSTRALIA’S FIRST ISTT NO-DIG AWARD
Bill Menzel accepts Australia’s first ISTT No-Dig award.
1997
Australia was recognised internationally for its technological innovation when Rib Loc Australia received the country’s first ISTT No-Dig Award for the most significant trenchless advancement of 1997. Rib Loc’s Ribsteel product was named the ‘most important international advance in Trenchless Technology’ at the ISTT No-Dig Conference held in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rib Loc Chairman Bill Menzel was presented with the award for the structural relining system designed for large diameter sewers that had deteriorated. Ribsteel was originally developed to meet the requirements of an arduous project in Abu Dhabi. The project specifications required the liner to be fully structural and capable of supporting all soil, water and live loading without excavation. The product provides a steel and PVC composite liner in deteriorated sewers up to 2,500 mm in diameter. Managing Director Peter Menzel said the award was an impressive endorsement and the company has featured it prominently while promoting its activities ever since. “The No-Dig Award helped to open doors for both Ribsteel and our company’s other Trenchless Technology products,” he said. “It assisted our company in gaining recognition internationally.” Developed at Rib Loc’s Adelaide premises, Ribsteel has been used on major projects in the Middle East, Asia, America and Australia. In Australia, Ribsteel was installed by Interflow, the Australian licensee for Rib Loc sewer rehabilitation systems. The first project involved installing a liner in a 1,650 mm diameter concrete sewer up to 9 m deep in water-charged ground at Kemblawarra, south of Sydney. The alternatives required excavation, which was impractical in such conditions.
CCTV SECTOR CONTINUES TO GROW As the surge of interest in sewer rehabilitation continued throughout the 1990s, the number of products and companies serving the sector continued to increase. With much work available to camera owners during this period, one company that responded to this demand was SECA. The company set up four van-mounted systems, and from the outset they were busy doing survey work for Sydney Water and contract cut-out work for a newly formed relining company. SECA’s staff numbers grew to more than 20, and apart from all of the physical work they had on, they were coming to grips with 386 computers and the very basic, original Sewrat program. It was at this time that SECA became involved in the ASTT, attending its first national conference. At the beginning of the 1990s SECA had chosen to exit contracting and concentrate on their core business of equipment supply. When the company moved into sewer rehabilitation, iPEK CCTV’s and ENZ Golden Jet nozzles were also added to the supply chain. One of the lessons learned from SECA’s contracting period was the difficulty in having inspection equipment serviced in a fast, efficient manner. SECA set about providing that service with factory- trained technicians and extensive stocks of spare parts. A specialist sales person was also employed at this time to service the growing WINCAN CCTV inspection software market. The new century saw the addition of a large range of equipment to their sales catalogue, including new and advanced CCTV. As the company continued to grow, in 2009 they moved to new headquarters in Chipping Norton – where they are today.
Trevor Groeneveld’s involvement with trenchless technology dates back to the 1990s, when he established No-Dig Pipelaying.
50 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
UEA’s horizontal directional drilling skillsets have been developed on the back of the delivery of significant and complex projects over the last 25 years.
HORIZONTAL DIRECTIONAL DRILLING
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TURNKEY SOLUTIONS
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ASTT HISTORY
The preliminary conference breakfastat No-Dig Down Under.
1998
52 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
HDD rig demonstration.
VACUUM EXCAVATORS ON SITE Vacuum excavators became popular in the Australasian trenchless technology market in the late 1990s, as HDD operators found them perfectly suited to visually confirming the location of existing buried utilities and vacuuming up drilling fluids. As ‘soft’ excavators, a vacuum excavator can dig small precisely controlled potholes using pressurised water or air without the risk of damaging buried pipe and cable that is inherent with mechanical equipment and tools. Although most drilling fluid additives are not harmful to the environment, project owners and municipalities began requiring that work areas be kept free of drilling fluids, and compact, manoeuvrable vacuum excavators could do the job faster and more efficiently than any other equipment available. While at the time vacuum excavators were new to many in utility construction, they have been around since the 1950s. The first machines were designed and built by specialty contractors for their own use and were not offered for sale. “The needs of the directional drilling industry created a demand for vacuum excavators that had not been present in the past, and it wasn’t long before one or more units were found on almost every directional drilling site,” says Richard Levings, Product Manager at vacuum excavator manufacturer Charles Machine Works. While potholing and HDD fluid clean up may have led to the growth in popularity of vacuum excavators, their value extends far beyond supporting HDD activities. “They can do so many different things, they are becoming known as the most versatile construction package to come along in years,” Levings said. Excavations made with vacuum
excavation equipment usually cause less disruption to traffic and other surface activities. Vacuum excavators are effective for digging holes to set utility and light poles and poles to support signs. They can be used to dig short segments of trench in areas where larger equipment can’t be used and in easements crowded with buried pipe and cable. They are used to make small excavations to repair pipe and pipe joints, to cut off service lines, to plug unused pipelines, and to attach anodes for cathodic corrosion protection systems. Small excavations made by the machines are easier and less expensive to fill and repair. Jetting attachments are useful in cleaning out conduit and sanitary and storm sewer lines. Vacuum excavators are versatile, all-purpose vacuums for cleaning out manholes, catch basins, conduit and pipe, vehicle wash pits, grease traps, and virtually any other cleanup job. Since entering the market, vacuum excavators have established a prominent position within the industry. Productiveness of a vacuum excavator is related to horsepower and torque curve of the power unit, type of positive displacement pump or blower used to create vacuum, capacity of pump or blower stated in cf/m, speed of air flow through the system, filtering of air flow, pressure and gp/m of water pump in the reduction phase, nozzle configuration of the excavation tool, and amount of water and speed of air at the reduction head. Other considerations for evaluating equipment include size and weight, capacity of the vacuum holding tank, weight of the unit when holding tank is full, capacity of water supply tank on water models, dust filtering systems on air units, and sound levels during operation.
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ASTT HISTORY
1999
The Rotaloc relining system.
54 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
BALNARRING BEACH – HDD BY THE BEACH
CLM: A DECADE OF EXPERIENCE
South East Water was faced with a huge challenge when its Backlog Sewerage Program included the construction of a sewer through one of Victoria’s beachfront properties. It was with the use of directional drilling that the Balnarring Beach Sewerage Project was able to be completed. Blaxland Pacific, now ADH Trenchless, was approached to construct the sewer along the beach using directional drilling. The company investigated the blend of drilling fluid required for working in sand, below sea level and imported an electronic drilling head sond from the United States. The transmitter was sensitive enough to register a change in grade equivalent to the thickness of a business card slid under one end of the pipe. Five vertical exploratory bores were carried out along the pipe route to verify that the underlying rock reef, which was exposed at various points along the beach at low tide, was below the pipe level. The pilot bore drilling commenced at a distance of 30 m from the start of the pipeline to get down to depth, on grade and on line. But after 20 m the drill head struck a rise in the reef midway between the locations of the first two exploratory bores. The operators were then able to trench through the top of the reef by slowing the advance rate. After that incident, progress was steady and smooth. The depth, location and grade of the drilling head sond was monitored at the surface using a hand receiver and stepped string lines, set up between level pegs along the pipeline alignment. The drilling head eventually passed the downstream manhole location and was curved back up to the surface 30 m from the start. At the same time, 12 m lengths of 1800 mm diameter PE pipe were being fusion-welded together to 156 m and strung out along the beach ready for the next stage of the work. Enlarging the pilot bore and drawing the PE pipe through was the last stage of the work. This involved removing the drilling head from the end of the drilling rods and attaching a reamer slightly larger than the pipe diameter to which the pipe was coupled behind using a universal joint, so that the pipe wouldn’t turn with the rotating reamer. The reaming started early to install the pipe with minimal interruption and reduce the risk of pipe friction resistance building up to the extent that it would fail or the drilling machine couldn’t provide enough thrust. The upstream end of the finished pipe had lifted more than 500 mm, but excavation at a distance of 14 m downstream revealed an acceptable 65 mm above designed pipe level. Meanwhile, the downstream end was 13 mm low.
CLM started as CLM Excavations back in 1981, and has made a considerable contribution to the trenchless industry in the previous decade. The obsession with Trenchless Technology started in 1999 with the establishment of a joint venture with UEA for horizontal directional drilling for an Endeavour Energy project. The joint venture with UEA is still in place and CLM has since developed in-house capability to pipe burst projects 100 – 1,000 mm in diameter. To date, CLM’s greatest achievement in this area was completing pipe bursting works and sliplining along Woodville Road, Guildford and Granville for AquaNet’s Rosehill Recycled Water Scheme for in January 2011. As part of the project CLM converted a disused 3.5 km, 300 mm diameter Jemena gas main to a 375 mm diameter recycled water main, providing water to industrial and irrigation customers in Smith field and Rosehill. The continuous pipe burst of 3.5 km of 400 mm PN16 HDPE pipeline would make this one of the longest sections continuously pipe burst in Australia. The technical scope was challenging but, to add to this, the crew also had to overcome sliplining 750 m of pipeline underneath Clyde railway station and along Parramatta Road. CLM has also managed microtunnelling, pipe jacking and thrust boring projects across the water, wastewater, gas and electricity sectors.
ROTALOC RELINING IS LAUNCHED In 1999, Rib Loc and Interflow launched the impressive and now well-known Rotaloc relining system. The Rotaloc winding machine was developed so it travelled along the deteriorated pipeline as it was lining. The winding machine had the capacity to alter the diameter of the liner as it traversed the pipeline. The most impressive aspect of Rotaloc was the fact that it was a one-step process that provided a structural liner in contact with the pipe wall, even if the diameter changed along the pipeline length. Rotaloc was designed to line deteriorated pipelines from 800 mm to over 2,000 mm in diameter. Rotaloc was first used by Interflow for Melbourne Water at Box Hill for a 200 m length of 1,200 mm diameter stormwater pipe. During this period, Rib Loc and Interflow signed an agreement to develop and commercialise the Rotaloc technology. Water authorities in Australia became aware of the Rotaloc system and recognised the benefits and possibilities for rehabilitating their larger pipelines.
PROVIDING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS Part of the Killard Group, Insituform Pacific is the exclusive installer of Insituform® CIPP, which has been used for more than 45 years to protect a wide variety of structures and pipelines from corrosion, restore structural integrity, reduce infiltration, eliminate leaking joints, improve water quality and increase pipeline flow capacity. Insituform offers services from condition assessment, reporting, design, non-destructive and civil rehabilitation, junction and branch rehabilitation renewal and commissioning.
The company specialises in the latest technologies providing the most cost effective rehabilitation solutions along with a superior product. Killard Group can provide a full service, one-stop-shop providing end-to-end assistance. The combined entities offer a holistic solution for clients covering civil and non-destructive asset replacement.
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ASTT HISTORY
2000
Delegates testing out an HDD rig at No-Dig Perth.
Part of the 2,300 m2 exhibition space.
ISTT NO-DIG DOWN UNDER
materials involved, due to changes in direction of some of the industry providers and due to fluctuating demands following economic trends. For the most part, areas of the industry responsible for providing essential infrastructure, such as for public health and energy, embraced the social, environmental and cost bene ts that trenchless technologies provide. High technology industries providing communications and entertainment infrastructure further identified the use of some trenchless technologies as methods of rapid and wide expansion with substantial cost savings. In the early to mid-1990s, the majority of trenchless work was undertaken by or for larger authorities or organisations. It was reported that this may be attributed to the relatively high initial costs involved and the ability to accept some of the perceived risk involved in utilising the new technologies. In the later 1990s, as more work was undertaken and more industry players became involved, unit costs generally decreased and proven track records were established, reducing some of the associated risks. The result was a wider embrace of trenchless technologies throughout authorities, as well as in smaller sized organisations. It was noted that as the community places an increasing demand on infrastructure systems, and regulators exert more influence to improve and rationalise infrastructure systems to meet environmental and regulatory requirements, the need to provide new infrastructure and upgrade existing systems will continue to increase.
After An exhaustive four-year effort by the ASTT committee, ISTT No-Dig Perth 2000 was the first ever conference and exhibition event to be held in the Southern Hemisphere by the international association. A record 600 delegates from over 30 countries gathered at the Burswood Convention Centre and Exhibition Superdome. The event, held from 15–19 October, was staged under the chairmanship of conference convener Menno Henneveld. International members of the trenchless industry were immersed in the theme of ‘Underground Space Technology – the Hole Solution’ for four days. The theme covered the widest possible scope for trenchless technology, and provided links with a greater range of tunnelling methodologies and the underground space movement. The conference featured both a comprehensive technical program with a full speaker line-up, workshop sessions and site visits, along with social and networking events.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY IN 2000 In 2000, ahead of the International No-Dig Conference and Exhibition being held in Australia for the first time, the ASTT prepared a State of the Industry report – reflecting on the past decade and looking to the years ahead. The report was prepared so that the ASTT could assess the standing of the trenchless technology industry in Australia at the time. The report found that the 1990s saw significant growth and development of existing and new trenchless technologies all aimed at creating and upgrading infrastructure whilst minimising disruption, disturbance and environmental damage, and at the same time reducing costs. Where technologies did not experience growth during this period, it was attributed to reluctance by some areas of the industry to accept some of the techniques or 56 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
SLIPLINING 900 METRES IN JUST TWO PULLS After experiencing a number of bursts in Griffith’s cast iron sewer main, located in south western New South Wales, renovation
of the ageing pipeline was ordered by the Griffith City Council. Airpipe was contracted to rehabilitate more than 900 m of the 600 mm diameter sewerage rising main, which was constructed in 1946. The main, located adjacent to the city’s main shopping district, carried waste from the Yoogali and Collina districts and the industrial area. The section of pipeline to be renewed had experienced a number of bursts due to the internal deterioration of the cast iron after being continually subjected to sulphuric acid. The acid build-up corroded and weakened the pipes, causing cracks and bursts. The extent of the deterioration didn’t become evident until CCTV inspections were carried out prior to installation of the new liner, constructed using polyethylene (PE) pipes. The pipes, installed by Pipelines Australia, were butt fusion-welded together to form a continuous string prior to insertion in the pipeline. To alleviate this, permission was sought and granted from the owners of Main Canal, Murrumbidgee Irrigation, to utilise the canal for storing the completed pipe string prior to installation. The first string was inserted as one continuous length of more than 600 m. This was a substantial distance, given the size of the PE pipe in relation to the internal diameter of the existing main. By using specialised equipment for the sliplining procedure, Airpipe was able to achieve the long distance with just one pull. The second string was pulled through at nearly 300 m. By inserting the new liner in just two strings, only one hole had to be opened in the existing pipeline, apart from the connection points at either end of the renovated length. This also reduced the number of fittings needed to join the strings together.
The Next Generation in Trenchless Technology
At the forefront of the trenchless industry for more than 60 years Since 1957, the Pezzimenti name has been synonymous with pipeline construction in Victoria and recognised as a leader of the field. With a combined 70 years of experience in the microtunnelling, brothers Joe, Anthony and Stephen are the third generation of Pezzimentis to helm Pezzimenti Trenchless. Equipped with unparalleled experience, expertise, a dedicated R&D program and our own laser-guided microtunnelling system, the company a range The Next offers Generation in of methods to deliver the most efficient and effective solutions for every project, however big Trenchless Technology or small, from tier one contractors to local plumbing and drainage contractors.
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ASTT HISTORY
2001
Jeff Pace who has been Secretary since the ASTT was established.
TEN YEARS OF THE ASTT In March 2001, the ASTT marked ten years of operation, having achieved significant growth and progress for the industry within this decade. A testament to their dedication to the industry and the association they established, ASTT Chairman Menno Henneveld and Secretary Jeff Pace remained in the positions they had assumed when the ASTT was first incorporated. Many other councillors also chalked up long periods of service to the ASTT in its first decade: Graeme McArthur joined as Tasmanian Councillor in 1993, Andy Krumins joined as Queensland Councillor in 1994 and Mick McGill joined as New South Wales Councillor in 1995 – positions they still held in 2001. Since 1991, the ASTT had held four national conferences – Melbourne in 1992, Sydney in 1994, Perth in 1996 and Brisbane in 1998 – each event proving to be bigger and better than the last. For the industry itself, the 1990s largely represented a phase of establishment and education. Trenchless technology was relatively new to the marketplace, and councils and utilities needed to understand the rehabilitation and installations that could be achieved without having to dig trenches – and the associated benefits that could be provided. By 2001, infrastructure owners and operators had become increasingly aware of the favourable economics of renovation and rehabilitation techniques for pipelines, sewers and other assets. Pipe cracking, pipe bursting and horizontal boring techniques were also increasingly popular for new infrastructure installations. There were increasing demands for improved infrastructure, combined with demands for minimal disruption to the community, and the increasing value being placed on minimising disruption to the existing natural environment. The need for effective solutions, such as those provided by trenchless technologies, were clearly going to become more important over the next decade and beyond. After a solid ten years of establishing the industry, and educating councils, authorities and infrastructure owners about the associated benefits, in 2001, the ASTT looked forward to an exciting next ten years of growth and broader acceptance and use of the technologies it promoted.
MELBOURNE WATER
Menno Henneveld speaking at the Perth No-Dig event in 2000.
58 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Established in 1891 as the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, Melbourne Water looks after the city’s water supply catchments. Focused on a sustainable water future, the organisation has benefited from the trenchless techniques used in its major projects. Melbourne Water manages
approximately $A8.4 billion worth of assets, which includes 391 km of sewers, 1,452 km of drains, nine sewage pumping stations and two treatment plants. These include the Eastern Treatment Plant at Bangholme and the Western Treatment Plant at Werribee. The organisation manages Melbourne’s water supply catchments, treats and supplies drinking and recycled water, removes and treats most of Melbourne’s sewage, and manages waterways and major drainage systems in the Port Phillip and Westernport region. Its predecessor, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, played a significant role in the development of the city by building a large water supply network and drainage and sewerage facilities. In 1991, the organisation merged with the Mornington Peninsula District Water Board, Dandenong Valley and Western Port Authorities, Dandenong-Springvale Water Board, Pakenham Water Board, Lang Lang Water Board and Emerald Water Board to form Melbourne Water. The organisation remains as the wholesale water business after Melbourne’s water industry was split into City West Water, Yarra Valley Water and South East Water in 1995. Melbourne Water has embraced trenchless technology in recent years, most notably on tunnelling projects to improve Melbourne’s sewage and drainage network. The organisation continues to service metropolitan customers – including those from City West Water, South East Water, Yarra Valley Water – as well as other water authorities, local councils, land developers and businesses.
THE RIGHT HDD EQUIPMENT As the Australasian HDD market continued to grow, a range of unique and innovative businesses began to serve machine operators. With many Australian companies using rigs manufactured overseas, there was clearly room in the Australian market for a supplier of complementary products that would be available onshore – instead of needing to be ordered internationally. Enter companies such as Tsubaki Australia. The company provides HDD drill pipe together with a full range of complementary downhole tools including saver subs, starter rods, sonde housings, backreamers and pilot bits. These suppliers understand the importance of providing technical support and having the right product available to meet market demands. In the HDD sector, the key to getting the job done right the first time and on schedule is often having the right down hole tools for the job. With suppliers like Tsubaki on the scene, the Australasian market is well serviced.
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ASTT HISTORY
2002 HDD RECORD IN TASMANIA
The path for the Tamar River crossing.
The construction of Duke Energy International’s Tasmanian Gas Pipeline (TGP) achieved an Australian first when the Stockton AJ Lucas Joint Venture successfully completed the country’s longest under-river horizontal directional drill beneath the Tamar River. Stockton was McConnell Dowell’s specialist drilling contractor. The TGP is the natural gas transmission pipeline that transports gas from Longford in Victoria to Tasmania. The 734 km subsea and onshore pipeline was commissioned in 2002. Following rigorous engineering, environmental and heritage surveys and studies and pending approvals, construction of the TGP began in 2001. The $A350 million project featured 430 km of onshore pipeline, a 305 km pipeline across Bass Strait and conversion of the Bell Bay Power Station to a gas-fired facility. The pipeline’s planned route would see it cross under the Tamar River, near Bell Bay, and continue to Rosevale, near Launceston. It was here that trenchless technology was employed to achieve the best environmental outcomes for the region, and the project. It was decided that the best way for the pipeline to cross the Tamar River would be underneath it, with horizontal directional drilling to be utilised to clear a path for the pipeline. Drilling on what was one of the world’s longest under river-drilled crossings began in late February on the east side of the Tamar River, near the Bell Bay Power Station. The 2,046 m curved, underground drill hole punched through the ground at Rowella, on the west bank of the Tamar River, on Friday 22 March 2002. The drill rig used at the Tamar River had a pull-back capacity of 300 tonnes and the curved drill hole reached 86 m beneath the bed of the river. A further eleven rivers in northern Tasmania were then crossed using HDD.
RELINING IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
Preparing for a record HDD beneath the Tamar River, Tasmania.
60 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
In 2002, Kembla Watertech was awarded Australia’s largest single rehabilitation contract for reticulation sewers as part of Sydney Water’s SewerFix program. In May 2000, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA)
issued new sewage treatment system licence standards and, in order to meet the objectives, Sydney Water introduced the SewerFix program. SewerFix is a major rehabilitation program still in place today, fixing leaks and blockages in pipes, installing new pipes and wastewater infrastructure and upgrading wastewater pumping stations. The program minimises the impact of infiltration/exfiltration of existing sewerage infrastructure throughout Sydney Water’s area of operation, including the Blue Mountains. Sydney Water identified sewer catchment areas in the region with choke and sewage over flow problems and so issued two major contracts to carry out cleaning, inspection and rehabilitation of the nominated sewers. With an extensive range of in-house technologies, and an enviable track record in environmentally sensitive locations, Kembla Watertech was awarded two major contracts in the Blue Mountains. The first of these contracts was awarded in March 2002 and, to this day, represents the largest single reticulation sewer rehabilitation contract ever awarded in Australia. Kembla was subsequently awarded the second Blue Mountains SewerFix contract in early 2004, with the combined scope of works resulting in a magnitude previously unseen. The trenchless technologies employed to complete the Blue Mountains contracts were Kembla’s Ex Method structural lining, Enviroliner CIPP structural lining, Tiger-T junction repair, Tiger Patch spot repair, Beaver H Expander pipe re-rounding and robotic repairs and junction cutting. Once the crews had everything in place, they manually moved the 300 mm diameter resin-impregnated Enviroliner onto the platform from where it was inverted into the sewer pipe section. Because of the distance of the boiler unit from the chamber, a special low heat-loss hose was used in order to circulate the hot water and successfully cure the Enviroliner. It is not normal practice to have the installation equipment so far away, and this job represented the longest ever rehabilitation undertaken by this process. In response to the unique circumstances, Kembla was able to again extend the boundaries of existing technology in order to achieve a successful result for all stakeholders.
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ASTT HISTORY
FIRST ENVIRO NZ EVENT In 2003, the ASTT teamed up with the New Zealand Water & Wastes Association to stage the EnviroNZ 03 event, which proved to be a very successful first meeting between the two organisations. As the industry in Australia and New Zealand continued to grow, so did the number of projects involving Trenchless Technology. This year a number of significant projects were underway, including the BassGas HDD shore crossing; the Collex Nodig UV-cured, fibreglass reline project for Brisbane Water; the unique ‘pipe within a pipe’ reline for Water Corporation; and significant microtunelling works in Wellington to install new stormwater pipes. This was also the year that UK-born Charles Stockton brought his company to Australasia, recognising the significant opportunities the region presented the HDD sector.
BASSGAS HDD SHORE CROSSING
Pipeline installation on the BassGas Project.
2003
In early 2003, Coe Drilling was awarded a HDD shore crossing contract on the BassGas Project in Victoria. The BassGas Project was one of the state’s most significant infrastructure projects for the decade, bringing the first alternate gas supply into south eastern Australia since the Gippsland gas fields were developed over 30 years ago. The project involved a shore crossing at Kilcunda in Victoria using HDD. The methodology proposed by Coe for the installation of the pipeline was the forward thrusting method. This method involves installing the pipeline by pushing the product pipe into the pre-conditioned borehole, unlike the conventional method of pulling from offshore. Work commenced onsite with the fabrication of the 1,477 m long nap-rock coated pipeline. The pipeline was welded and field joint coated prior to the pre-installation hydrostatic testing of the completed pipe string. Once the borehole had been completed the drilling assembly was withdrawn and the Coedrill550 Pipe Pusher was mobilised to site. The pipeline installation operation was completed in two stages; the first stage was to install the pipeline to a position beyond the offshore HDD exit hole until suitable conditions existed for the marine support vessel to work. The ultimate success of the HDD shore crossing under challenging conditions proved to be a success for Trenchless Technology on a high profile project.
significant obstacles. The pipeline ran at a depth of approximately 9 m, with the upstream manhole located beside a tidal creek, and the main running directly under a busy freeway to a downstream manhole in a major arterial road. In the initial survey provided, there was evidence of some minor debris in the pipeline for the first 30 m, but after a few hours of cleaning work, it became evident that there was much more debris in the line than expected. A CCTV camera was lowered into the pipeline to follow the high pressure water cleaning nozzle, and it showed blockages of up to 80 per cent in sections. After the cleaning process, the team was reasonably confident that all debris had been removed from the pipeline – however, significant water remained in the pipeline. A decision was made to proceed with the liner, although it was recognised that there was a possibility of some water remaining behind the liner. A winch was set up at the downstream manhole and the liner was prepared for towing in. A post CCTV survey was carried out and the outcome exceeded all expectations.
PIPE WITHIN A PIPE IS A WINNING SOLUTION When Water Corporation engineers set about planning refurbishment of a 3.8 km section of the Kingsway collector sewer in Perth, they encountered an unusual problem that required a unique solution. Approximately 250 m of the sewer ran beneath the Hollywood Private Hospital, with some access manholes in hospital wards. The pipeline route also lay below dense housing, business premises, a school, and a number of busy roads, including Stirling Highway. Traditional methods of tackling the refurbishment, such as excavation and microtunnelling, presented daunting problems, so a new approach was needed. The solution was Enviroliner, described as ‘a pipe within a pipe’. The result on the Kingsway section was a great success, with the project completed below budget, at an actual cost of just under $A1.8 million, and in only twelve weeks – compared to a possible six months using traditional methods.
BRISBANE SEES THE LIGHT In 2003, Collex Nodig completed a sewer rehabilitation project for Brisbane Water that established a new first for UV-cured, fibreglass lining technology in Australia. The project involved the installation of 153 m of 700 mm Berolina liner, which is manufactured by BKP-Berolina of Berlin. From the outset, the project posed some 62 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Pipe laid out ahead of the HDD installation on the BassGas Project.
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ASTT HISTORY
The Trenchless Australasia team in 2004.
2004
ASTT WINS ISTT NO-DIG AWARD The Australian Trenchless industry confirmed its place at the forefront of the global industry in 2004 when the Society received the academic/ training ISTT Award. At the 2004 ISTT Conference in Hamburg, Germany, the ASTT received the No-Dig Award in the category of Academic Research or Training Aid. The award was for an educational CD for use in tertiary institutions, produced by the Society in association with the University of New South Wales. In 2001 the ASTT contracted the University of New South Wales to develop a costeffective electronic educational resource that would facilitate the introduction of trenchless technology education packages into tertiary education institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand. The ASTT’s general aim for the educational CD was to provide academics and teachers with a complementary, comprehensive set of pre-packaged teaching resources and tutorial materials that could be used in their day-to-day activities. The CD was to provide an easily customisable and readily updateable, flexible teaching resource. Prior to commencing this project, the University of New South Wales conducted a formal survey of over 100 of their final year civil engineering students, finding that there was nearly zero awareness of the Trenchless Technology industry. Accepting the award, ASTT Chairman Menno Henneveld paid tribute to the efforts of Dr Jon O’Brien and his undergraduate students from the University of New South Wales.
TRENCHLESS AUSTRALASIA IS LAUNCHED ASTT Chairman Menno Henneveld accepts the ISTT Award from Dr Ray Sterling.
64 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
In September 2004 the ASTT’s own magazine, Trenchless Australasia, was launched,
heralding a new era for the Society and the Trenchless Technology industry in Australia. Prior to the launch of Trenchless Australasia, ASTT Secretary Jeff Pace worked singlehandedly to produce a biannual colour newsletter for ASTT members. Trenchless Australasia, published by Great Southern Press, was envisioned as a quarterly magazine to be used as a tool to communicate with members and, importantly, provide an opportunity for the trenchless technology industry in Australia and New Zealand to gain further prominence and wider recognition. As Trenchless Australasia was launched, ASTT Chairman at the time Menno Henneveld said, “This impressive journal, the official magazine of the ASTT, will be a feature of the trenchless industry down under for many years to come. I look forward to many years of Trenchless Australasia as the flagship of our industry.” Today, the magazine is published by Prime Creative Media, with every utility and local council across Australia and New Zealand receiving a copy of the magazine.
A WORLD-FIRST IN DIRECTIONAL DRILLING BRINGS RELIEF TO WOLLONGONG When the final 400 mm reaming of a 1.74 km pilot hole connecting Victoria’s Stanwell Park to Otford was completed, it was the world’s longest bore for the size of rig used. For the residents of this area north of Wollongong, the result provided a long overdue upgrade to a sewage system designed more than a century ago. The operation was carried out by Akerman Apache, a joint venture of Oklahoma-based Akerman Construction and Australian-owned Apache Earthworks. The project involved a low-pressure system totalling 6,500 m of reticulation and 6,746 m of transfer mains in all ground conditions. The rig used was a track-mounted American Augers 220 with a basic 1,000 gallons per minute mud-recycling unit. During the operation, the longest bore was from Stanwell Park to Otford, which was a length of 1,740 m. This accommodated a 225 mm polyethylene pipe with a 50 mm wall thickness and had a weight of 46 tonnes. Within the first 350 m of the bore, a 52 degree compound curve was made before straightening out to complete the 1,740 m shot. An underground aquifer was drilled through, at 1,000 m into the pilot bore, to create 80,000 litres of water per day. This required large frac tanks to be mobilised, with waste fluid removed on a regular basis. To accurately locate the position of the bore at all times, a True Tracker with a Tensor steering tool was employed. This system was operated by running a wire coil to allow communication with the drill head.
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ASTT HISTORY
2005 Repairing the pipe.
RECORD REPAIR IN RECORD TIME FOR LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL Launceston City Council, located in Tasmania, was faced with a complicated task of sealing a broken and displaced joint under continuous water in filtration. The problem was that the joint was more than 1 m in diameter, 6 m underground, tidally in influenced and immediately under a concrete flood levee. The asset was a stormwater pipe laid from the pump station to the low-tide level at the river. Previous open-trench repair attempts had failed, leaving Underground Asset Services (UGAS) with a seemingly impossible job. No trenchless spot repair of this size had ever been attempted in Tasmania, or as far as the company understood, the rest of Australia. For the project, UGAS used KRE Engineering Services to supply the trenchless equipment and materials required. KRE organised the 1,000/1,200 mm inflatable packer to be flown in especially for the job and provided the appropriate PatchBox kits for the in-situ pipe repair. The application was straightforward: the fibreglass mat was rolled out and impregnated with KRE Waterglass Resin, the packer was wrapped in protective polyethylene sheeting and the impregnated glass mat was securely wrapped around the protected inflatable packer. The trenchless method offered an effective means of repair to the damaged pipe.
WORLD’S LARGEST ROTALOC SEWER RELINING PROJECT In the western Sydney suburbs of Smithfield and Fairfield, Interflow completed the world’s largest Rib Loc Rotaloc project to date in 2005. The project was to install Rotaloc structural liners in 5 km of deteriorated sewers with diameters of 915, 1,065 and 1,220 mm. The project also included 380 m of 760 mm diameter pipeline to be lined with Rib Loc Expanda Pipe. The project presented Interflow with numerous logistical challenges. The deepest pipelines were 9 m deep, many of the sections to be lined had distances between manholes greater than 150 66 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
m, with the longest single section being 228 m, and the pipeline route included numerous bends with angles up to 90 degrees. Interflow’s flow control arrangement required bypass pumping around lengthy sections to be lined, with flow being taken from upstream access chambers and bypassed to downstream access chambers. The longest length bypassed in a single operation during the Smithfield project was 1,700 m. For the downstream portions of the pipeline, it was possible to divert flows directly into the adjacent Kenyons Road carrier. Lining was an around-the-clock operation. Two crews worked in ten-hour shifts, typically lining around 70 m of pipe per shift. The record for a single shift was 157 m. The liner was installed from the 600 mm diameter standard manholes. The machine was disassembled, passed through the top of the manhole, and then re-assembled at the base. No excavation was needed. The completed project resulted in structural renewal of an important, large diameter deep sewer main, accomplished without the need for excavation, and without causing undue disruption to the community.
with the Herrenknecht tunnelling equipment arriving onsite 9 December. On 14 December, the machine was launched and driven through the entrance ring. On 29 December, the final completion point of the microtunnelling operations was achieved, and on 30 December, the pullback system methodology was discussed with the work team. On 3 January 2005 the tunnelling machine had returned to the thrust shaft. The operation was completed in 20 days. In 2006, the project was recognised by the ISTT, taking out the Project/Technique award for the microtunnelling retraction work completed.
OTWAY GAS PROJECT – MICROTUNNELLING RETRACTION FIRST For the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, a microtunnelling retraction was undertaken at the Otway Gas Project, completed at the start of 2005. The Otway Gas Project was a major project undertaken to develop gas fields on the western coast of Victoria. The project involved installing a 20 inch gas export pipeline and a 4 inch service line between the offshore fields and a new onshore gas treatment plant. A key element of the project was a HDD shore crossing. The contract for this was awarded to Drilltec Australia, who engaged DJ & MB MacCormick Civil Engineering to undertake the microtunnelling retraction. The planning, design and procurement for the microtunnelling procedure took over ten months. The project commenced onsite on 6 December 2004,
DJ & MB MacCormick’s microtunnelling set up for the Otway Gas Project.
ASTT HISTORY
2006
Workers during the Southern and Western Suburbs Ocean Outfalls Sewer rehabilitation project.
TRENCHLESS AUSTRALIA’S FIRST GRADUATE The underground installation industry celebrated a milestone with the graduation of the first Australian worker with national Certificate III-level qualifications in trenchless technology. After a long campaign to introduce advanced training standards, Rob Tindall, a project manager with Perth-based Underground Services Australia, was presented with his nationally recognised certificate. The national qualification for Certificate III in Civil Construction (Trenchless Technology) was developed during the review of the civil construction training package in 2003. This followed initial work in Western Australia by the Civil Contractors Federation (CCF) in conjunction with the ASTT. The training resources were later developed through CCF, in Western Australia, with support from ASTT and with funding support from the state’s Building & Construction Industry Training Fund.
SOUTHERN AND WESTERN SUBURBS OCEAN OUTFALLS SEWER PROJECT
Water Infrastructure Group and Sydney Warer completed in-situ concrete repairs and epoxy lining at the Southern and Western Suburbs Ocean Outfalls Sewer.
The Water Infrastructure Group delivered one of the largest sewer rehabilitation projects ever undertaken by Sydney Water at the Southern and Western Suburbs Ocean Outfalls Sewer. The project included complex activities, multiple fronts, brownfield environment, significant constraints and adverse working conditions. The joint venture completed in-situ concrete repairs and epoxy lining that have not only restored but improved the structural and hydraulic integrity of the trunk sewer. It was the largest successful high-build epoxy repair of a major sewer in Australia, completed in a confined space, live sewer flows and brownfield site. Rehabilitating the trunk sewer main that transports up to 40 per cent of Sydney’s wastewater won the joint venture a string of awards, and it also taught a series of valuable lessons, including the importance of proactive community, industry and stakeholder engagement; the need for upfront demonstration of rehabilitation techniques under actual site conditions; and the fact that a safe workforce is a productive workforce. The three-year project was valued at $A98 million and was executed six months ahead of its revised completion date.
30,000 km of pipeline assets. SA Water utilises Trenchless Technology to inspect, repair and replace assets that are otherwise difficult to access and to minimise impact on stakeholders and the environment. The main trenchless techniques used by SA Water include, but are not limited to, CCTV, HDD, swagelining, spray lining, spiral wound lining, CIPP, pipe jacking, microtunnelling and pipe bursting. All options are considered in the planning phase of any project and assessed by the project team regarding the specific application. SA Water’s asset managers, project managers and operations managers rely on the skills of contractors to provide them with the latest in Trenchless Technology. SA Water is trying to overcome the particular challenge of increasing awareness of Trenchless Technology and its capabilities in the market place. It was noted that this challenge is improving through ASTT publications and conferences. Faced with a widely dispersed population, in one of the driest inhabited places on earth, SA Water has had to develop significant expertise in the management and transportation of water over vast distances. The challenges of delivering water to more than 1.5 million people in South Australia involve not just transporting, filtering and disinfecting the water from rivers, reservoirs and other supplies, but in managing these vital resources in an environmentally sustainable manner. South Australians receive their water through a system made up of a complex network of over 25,000 km of mains and pipes. SA Water pointed out that if laid out in a single pipeline the mains would reach almost twothirds of the way around the world.
SA WATER: EMBRACING TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY In 2006, SA Water celebrated 150 years of operation. An innovative business, SA Water has embraced Trenchless Technology in recent years with promising results. From metropolitan sewer mains to remote irrigation pipelines, SA Water is responsible for maintaining over 68 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
An SA Water trenchless construction site.
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ASTT HISTORY
2007
TUNNELLING MELBOURNE’S FUTURE
The pipe ready to be pulled through for the South Parklands Adelaide Watermain Rehabilitation Project.
Inspecting the shaft site at the Northern Sewerage Project.
70 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
In 2007, Melbourne Water began works on one of the region’s largest tunnelling projects. The Northern Sewerage Project (NSP) is an $A650 million essential infrastructure project that will improve the health of Melbourne’s waterways and provide much needed additional capacity of the sewerage system for Melbourne’s growing northern suburbs. The NSP is being jointly delivered by Melbourne Water (Stage 1) and Yarra Valley Water (Stage 2). In Stage 1, Melbourne Water is delivering an 8 km deep-tunnelled sewer connecting the existing sewerage system near the Merri Creek at Coburg and the Moonee Ponds Creek in Pascoe Vale. In Stage 2, Yarra Valley Water is responsible for a 4.5 km deep-tunnelled sewer running from Carr Street, Coburg North to L.E. Cotchin Reserve in Reservoir, and diverting sewage flows from the existing sewerage system in Fawkner. The John Holland Group is constructing both stages of the project. Most of the tunnelling work for the sewer took place between 15 m and 64 m below ground. Tunnelling works for both stages of the project began early in 2008 and were completed towards the end of 2009. State-of-the-art tunnel boring machines were used to construct the tunnels, and the new sewer has a diameter ranging from 1.6 – 2.5 metres. The TBMs were specially designed and commissioned for use on the NSP: two Herrenknecht EPB TBMs and one Robbins Hard Rock TBM. The TBMs were highly advanced and designed to operate in specific geological conditions. The Herrenknecht TBMs were designed to operate in mixed ground conditions, while the Robbins TBM was used to excavate through hard rock, such as the basalt conditions of Stage 2. The TBMs created 12.5 km of tunnel connecting the project’s eight shaft sites. The shafts are also providing connections to the existing sewers. Once the tunnelling was completed, the project team has been focused on lining and connection works for the sewer.
SA SWAGELINING RECORD In 2007, BJ Jarrad and CLM Trenchless set a swagelining record while working on the South Parklands Adelaide CBD Watermain Rehabilitation Project for SA Water. This project emerged from SA Water’s desire to trial trenchless technology using established local contractors. Originally, two options were tabled: sliplining and swagelining, with the latter chosen as the preferred option. The South Parklands project involved the rehabilitation of 1 km of 600 mm diameter cast iron water main in an environmentally sensitive location (open parkland adjacent to the CBD). It was decided the water main would be swagelined in four 250 m sections. The PE used for this project was PN12.5 HDPE 630 mm with a 47 mm wall thickness. The swagelining process involved setting up five 12 m long launch and receival pits, butt welding 20 m lengths of PE, and positioning of the swagelining rig and hydraulic pulling equipment, a Tracto Technik 800G. Installation took two weeks to complete with each run taking approximately four hours at a consistent pulling load of 60 tonnes. The equipment required for this project was manufactured by CLM Trenchless. When this project was undertaken, SA Water had been encouraging the investigation of new rehabilitation techniques. In particular, John Ringham, then Chief Operating Officer for SA Water, wanted to see Trenchless Technology embraced as part of the company’s renewals program, given his extensive experience in the UK with large-scale rehabilitation programs of water networks. In 2007, swagelining had been around for some time, but recent developments in pipe manufacture and specification had opened up the range of application for the technology.
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Building sustainable futures
TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE No-Dig Down Under is Australia’s largest conference and exhibition dedicated to the trenchless construction, rehabilitation and location of utility infrastructure. If you’re involved with major tunnelling projects, the installation of major infrastructure that utilises trenchless technology methods, or manage utility assets, No-Dig Down Under is an unmissable event. Returning in person in 2022, No-Dig Down Under brings together world-leading experts in trenchless technology across three conference streams, alongside the latest in new equipment on display in the exhibition hall. Tickets are available online now, with FREE entry into the exhibition hall. **If you work for a utility or council you may be eligible for a full conference scholarship, see the website for details**
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ASTT HISTORY
2008
The tunnel boring machine used for the pipe installation for the Quinns Main Sewer, north of Perth.
Inside the tunnel for the Melbourne Main Sewer Replacement project.
2008 ASTT AWARDS In 2008 the inaugural ASTT Project of the Year Awards were handed out, with Western Branch Main Sewer (WBMS) and Perth Main Sewer (PMS) upgrades taking out top honours. There were two categories for the Project of the Year awards – rehabilitation and installation. Interflow was the contractor for the rehabilitation of the structural liner in 1.4 km of 2 m high, 100 year-old ovoid sewer. Since its construction in the late 1890s the WMBS has been the major wastewater pipeline servicing Sydney’s inner west suburbs. Despite over 100 years of continuous use, it remains structurally sound, with repairs having been done when necessary. But in 2008, it was to be connected to the large Liverpool to Ashfield Pipeline, so it would be taking a lot more flow. In early 2007, Sydney Water called tenders for a project to improve its condition to ensure it has the capacity to handle the additional flow well into the future. Interflow proposed to install a partial liner based on the machine wound-in-place Rotaloc system. The process Interflow proposed was to clean the sewer, attach the drainage strip system to the surface of the existing pipeline, place a beam along the invert of the pipeline to support the Rotaloc winding machine, mount the machine on the beam and wind the largest 72 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
diameter of liner that would fill the crown of the pipeline. Rotaloc is well accepted for structural renewal of deteriorated circular sewers, but the sewer’s ovoid shape required developing work procedures that had not previously been attempted. To demonstrate the feasibility of the solution, Interflow conducted a trial installation at its Girraween depot, witnessed by Sydney Water representatives. The trial confirmed that the Rotaloc liner could be successfully wound with the winding machine on the beam in the invert, and once the base of the liner is cut and removed, the liner defects to the shape of the host sewer – in this instance an ovoid shape. Installation of the liner effectively renewed the section of pipeline. Rotaloc increased the pipeline’s structural and flow capacity while providing an abrasion-andcorrosion-resistant lining. The installation award was won by Humes for their work on a major upgrade to the PMS using Humes’ pre-cast J-Series jacking pipes.
MELBOURNE’S UNDERGROUND The Melbourne Main Sewer Replacement (MMSR) is a vital infrastructure project employing Trenchless Technology to meet the future growth of Melbourne. Construction on the MMSR began in August 2008, and is due for completion in 2012. The project involves the replacement of a section of Melbourne’s main sewer that has been servicing the city and inner southern suburbs for over 100 years. The project, being undertaken by Melbourne Water with John Holland, GHD and Aurecon, is tripling sewage capacity for the city’s growing population.
Corporation, Brookfield Multiplex, Macmahon Contractors and Zublin. The pipe jacking works began in February 2008 and were completed in early March 2009, three months ahead of schedule. The works included the construction of ten temporary jacking and/receiving shafts along the sewer alignment at varying depths between 8 m and 20 m. At each temporary shaft location, a permanent access chamber was installed for future access for inspections and maintenance. Depending on topography, construction and operational constraints, distances between the shafts varied from between 270 m and 606 m. The temporary shaft construction in the sandy strata was undertaken using concrete caisson segments with an internal diameter of 8.8 m. The vertically wet-cast pipes have an internal diameter of 2,000 mm, a wall thickness of 225 mm and are designed for jacking forces of 8,100 kN. Corrosion protection was provided for the pipes by the addition of a 2.5 mm thick, 360 degree HDPE liner, which was cast into the concrete pipes. The record was set when 84 m of pipe was installed within a 24-hour period using a ‘dual mode’ tunnel boring machine.
PIPE JACKING RECORD IN PERTH In 2008, a pipe jacking record was set on the 4.9 km extension of the Quinns Main Sewer, north of Perth. The pipe jacking operation was part of a suite of works by the Alkimos Water Alliance to install new wastewater services in Perth’s northern suburbs. The Alliance consisted of the Water
Interflow rehabilitating the Western Branch Main Sewer.
2009
The TBM from the Sugarloaf Pipeline, Ollie.
NEW ZEALAND’S LONGEST RELINE AWARDED
TUNNELLING THE SUGARLOAF PIPELINE
The largest diameter sewer pipe to be rehabilitated using Trenchless Technology in New Zealand was awarded the INGENIUM Excellence Award for public infrastructure in 2009. The award was presented to Hastings District Council for the rehabilitation of the Hastings No. 3 Trunk Sewer, located in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand. A total of 628 m of the No. 3 Trunk Sewer was continuously lined by Interflow using Rib Loc’s Rotaloc System. The pipe, which varied in diameter from 1,575 – 1,800 mm, was the largest sewer pipe attempted to be rehabilitated in New Zealand. Constructed in the 1970s, the No. 3 Trunk Sewer was a reinforced concrete pipeline that was significantly deteriorated from hydrogen sulphide attack. The pipe is located under residential properties, adjacent to footpaths and busy roads, and below commercial orchards and shelterbelts. Because of the pipeline diameter, the only option previously available for rehabilitation was open trench and relay, which would have caused considerable disruption to the orchard growers, residents, local traffic and the environment. Recognising the potential benefits of a trenchless solution, the client researched rehabilitation options on the ASTT website before negotiating a contract with Interflow to provide a solution to rehabilitate the trunk sewer. The solution in this case meant bringing the Rotaloc system into the country. Although Interflow’s smaller diameter (less than 1 m) Expanda lining system is now well established in New Zealand, this was the first time Rotaloc had been used here.
The Sugarloaf Pipeline in Victoria, constructed during 2009, utilised innovative tunnelling methods and withstood the challenges of the horrific Black Saturday bushfires. The Sugarloaf Pipeline is a 70 km pipeline linking the Goulburn River in Melbourne’s northeast to the Melbourne Water distribution network via the Sugarloaf reservoir in the Yarra Ranges. The planning, design and construction of the Sugarloaf Pipeline Project was undertaken by the Sugarloaf Pipeline Alliance, an alliance formed by Melbourne Water with John Holland, SKM and GHD. An 830 m section of the pipeline within the Toolangi Forest, where a steep crossfall precluded trenching, was constructed by tunnelling methods. The tunnel alignment featured a 680 m long curve with a radius of 825 m, and utilised microtunnelling technology. A Herrenknecht AVN1800 TD TBM with an extension kit in order to accommodate a 2 m internal diameter standard jacking pipe was procured for the tunnel construction. The TBM was named ‘Ollie’ after the class of worms in the region known as Oligochaeta, which contains the giant Gippsland earthworm, one of the world’s biggest. On 7 February 2009, the Black Saturday bushfires created havoc across Victoria, taking many lives, destroying homes and property and killing livestock and wildlife. The Sugarloaf Pipeline was directly affected with many work sites – including the TBM launch site – engulfed by the bushfires.
John Holland staff joined the fire fighting efforts and worked in shifts around the clock to support the Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment to create rebreaks with graders and dozers. In the aftermath of the bush res the TBM was launched on 31 March 2009 and completed the single 830 m long drive in ten working weeks. Following completion of pipe jacking, a steel pipe of 1.6 m outer diameter was then installed within the jacking pipe and grouted in.
INNOVATION IN CCTV Advances In CCTV have vastly improved what can be achieved over the past two decades. One exciting product on the market is the vCam Inspection Camera range, launched in 2009 by SebaKMT. The range has since been updated, with the control console now modular, allowing for ease of servicing and repair. The MP4 player has been updated to 320 GB and users can now download to USB Stick, SD card or computer. The system can also take JPEG shots. In 2010, the vCam LSR arrived, a welcome addition to the vCam family. The 20 m - 5 mm push rod reel is fully compatible with the vCam Modular console so it can be used with the handheld screen or as part of the full vCam system. The fact that reels from 20 – 120 m can be used with the vCam console makes this product range rather unique. Gone are the days of needing different systems for different length reels – a benefit to those in the CCTV market. ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 73
ASTT HISTORY
MICROTUNNELLING FOR SYDNEY DESAL
TBM marine recovery.
NEW ZEALAND RECORD SHOT
2010
Insituform rehabilitation projects around the region.
74 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
In 2010, a New Zealand record was set for a continuous directionally-drilled shot. The Auckland suburb of Birkdale has been prone to wastewater overflow during heavy rain, leaving residential properties and streets flooded with wastewater. The Project Care group of projects was developed to address the continual overflow with a new large diameter pipeline under densely-populated urban areas. The construction contract for the Birkdale B project for 1,030 m of pipe installed at a depth of up to 30 m was awarded to Pipeworks in December 2009. Drilling works started in February 2010 and were successfully completed in December 2010. During construction, a New Zealand record was set for a continuous directionally- drilled shot: 1,030 m. This is the first time in the country that installation in a single shot greater than 1,000 m has been achieved. Along the way to this record, numerous challenges were met and overcome, aerial view of the pipe installation. including a very shallow gradient (as low as 0.5 per cent), a highly-curved alignment, difficult soil conditions (alternating between soft clay and sandstone), and the environmentally-sensitive location. The large diameter 630 mm PE 100 pipe originally proposed presented a real risk to installation due to its size and physical characteristics. To mitigate this risk, Pipeworks installed smaller diameter 550 mm fusible PVC (FPVC) pipe, supplied by Iplex Pipelines, by directional drilling for the first time ever in New Zealand. The use of FPVC pipe reduced construction risks, and also provided economic benefits. The FPVC has a higher tensile strength than PE 100 pipe, and requires a smaller diameter hole, which means smaller carbon footprint for installation.
At the Sydney Desalination Plant, microtunnelling was used to ensure the best possible environmental outcomes. The Water Delivery Alliance which was responsible for the design, procurement and construction of the pipeline and pump station infrastructure which linked Sydney’s new desalination plant to the existing water grid. The Alliance was lead by Sydney Water in addition to McConnell Dowell, Bovis Lend Lease, Kellogg Brown and Root, Worley Parsons and Environmental Resource Management. The 17 km pipeline includes 7.5 km of twin 1,400 mm diameter steel pipelines across Botany Bay and 6.4 km of 1,800 mm diameter MSCL pipe installed inside 2,100 mm diameter concrete pipes, all of which were installed by microtunnelling. Three tunnel boring machines (TBMs) were used (one EPB and two AVN), with an outside diameter of 2,600 mm. These machines were selected to suit the variable geotechnical conditions of the alignment, avoiding delays by improving productivity and minimising the risk profile of the project. A technical challenge was the marine recovery of the TBM used for pipe jacking activities under sensitive seagrasses. The 110 tonne machine was successfully extracted, floated to shore, recovered and reused. At the time, McConnell Dowell was the only contractor in the Southern Hemisphere successful in completing a TBM marine recovery. The company has now completed one other TBM recovery in Australia and two in New Zealand. The project team was responsible for obtaining all project environmental approvals and licences, and was highly tuned to developing methods and techniques aimed at avoiding destruction of sensitive seagrass areas at the bay shoreline. They developed a tunnelled solution – microtunnelling in sands underneath the seagrass at Silver Beach to 800 m offshore – a solution not deemed possible by the client during the early concept phase. The Alliance demonstrated a strong partnership between the public and private sector and this highly technical project was successfully completed on time in January 2010.
40 YEARS OF CIPP Insituform invented its close-fit structural gravity pipeline rehabilitation system in 1970, and so 2010 marked the 40th anniversary of what is now known as cured-in-place-pipe, or simply CIPP. On 21 August 1970, one of the pioneers of the industry, Eric Wood, applied for the world’s first CIPP patent. The first test installation of CIPP was successfully completed in 1970 in an egg- shaped Victorian brick sewer in the London Borough of Hackney. The company has completed in excess of 30,500 km of pipeline rehabilitation over the past 40 years in over 40 countries. The company continues to invest in product development and growth.
2011 TRENCHLESS ASSISTS IN CHRISTCHURCH Following the devastating earthquakes of September 2010 and February 2011 in Christchurch, trenchless technology has been used to rebuild the city. In September 2010, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck near Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. The earthquake’s epicentre was 40 km west of Christchurch and the result of the quake was widespread damage and power outages. Aftershocks continued well into 2011, with the most devastating being a magnitude 6.3 on 22 February 2011, which caused the loss of life, extensive damage to the city of Christchurch and left many people in need of assistance. The city’s wastewater infrastructure, which had been compromised since the 2010 quake, had suffered numerous collapses in conjunction with extensive silt build-up and required immediate attention. A taskforce, consisting of several contractors from around Australia, was mobilised in March 2011, with Kembla Watertech sending over CCTV/jetting units and a combination truck. Fourteen Kembla crew members, headed up by Paul Beck and Rob Alexander from Kembla’s Northern Division, volunteered to join the taskforce. The crew landed in Christchurch on 28 March 2011, which coincided with the disembarking of the three Kembla trucks,
which had spent ten days on a freight vessel ‘crossing the pond’. The arrival of the two CCTV/jetting units and the combination truck enabled the crews to get straight to the enormous amount of urgent work required.
OVIFORM SEWER CHALLENGES Oviform Pipes were originally installed in the early colonial era in both Sydney and Melbourne, in what are now predominantly exclusive residential waterfront areas and national parks. A particularly challenging job was undertaken and completed by Kembla Watertech in February 2011 during one of the hottest weeks of the year. The section of oviform pipe to be lined was 168 m long with two sweeping 45 degree bends and was located in Neutral Bay on Sydney’s Lower North Shore. The oviform size was 990 mm x 660 mm with an Enviroliner (CIPP) thickness of 21 mm to provide a minimum design life of 50 years. With a weight of 70 kg/m, the entire length of Enviroliner weighed in at over 11 tonnes and required a 12 m refrigerated semi- trailer for transportation. In addition to the weight of the liner, the crew faced a major challenge with the brick access shaft, which was a 12 m deep 750 mm cylindrical brick shaft as opposed to a more standard conicalshaped access chamber. A system of straps and clamps was used in conjunction with a crane to support the 11 tonnes of folded liner to avoid any elongation prior to installation. Water was slowly fed into the liner to ensure conformity to the oviform profile of the pipe as it was lowered into place. All the installation
Kembla Watertech lining oviform pipe in Sydney.
processes had to be done from aboveground with no visual help past the access chamber opening. Once installed and cured, reinstatement of branch connections to this sewer presented the next problem as some of these were located in close proximity to the 45 degree bends within the oviform carrier. It was necessary for Kembla to design and build a custom robotic cutter to match the height, reach and profile of the oviform pipe. This robotic cutter proved successful and has since been adapted for use across all sizes of oviform and again reinforces Kembla’s innovative approach to Trenchless Technology.
CONNECTING THE NATION
The aftermath of the devastating Christchurch earthquake.
The Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) has been on the Federal Government’s agenda for several years. In 2011 the project – which could see a potential boom in directional drilling work – received its biggest boost to date. A major agreement between Telstra, NBN Co and the Australian Federal Government was signed in June 2011, moving the NBN one step closer. Under the agreement, Telstra will disconnect its copperbased network and participate in the rollout of the NBN. Telstra will migrate its own services onto NBN- based services over an expected ten-year period of building the national network. The company will also provide NBN Co with large-scale access dark bre, exchange space, lead-in-conduits and ducts at prices based on committed large volume levels of usage and availability. The ASTT is working with the government to ensure that the skills of the industry are properly utilised and that appropriate training is conducted. The proposed $43 billion NBN has been described as the single largest nation- building infrastructure project in Australian history. ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 75
ASTT HISTORY
2012
Pipeliner Drillers Group raising the pipe string for pull through on APA’s Roma to Brisbane Metro Looping Project. Courtesy: Pipeline Drillers Group.
76 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
FIRST AUSSIE HDD INTERSECT COMPLETE Coe Drilling completed the first horizontal directional drill intersect in Australia, which ran underneath Gladstone Harbour, Queensland, as part of the Curtis Island Water and Sewerage Infrastructure Project. The crossing was drilled using two rigs, employing the first use of horizontal directional drill (HDD) intersect in Australia, with a total of three crossings of the harbour planned with this technology in order to minimise impacts on the environment. To perform the works, a 500 tonne rig has been set up at the RG Tanna Coal Terminal and a 500 tonne rig has been set up on Curtis Island. The 2,130 m crossing intersect was completed on 20 December 2011, and borehole reaming with the first 14 inch steel liner was installed in February 2012.
SAFEGUARDING SENSITIVE MARINE ENVIRONMENTS The Adelaide Desalination project was a design, build, operate and maintain contract for a reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant. The Adelaide Aqua consortium that delivers 100 GL of desalinated water annually. The plant is capable of providing half of Adelaide’s water needs. At the time it was the the largest water infrastructure project completed in South Australia and benefited the local economy with almost 600 South Australian businesses working on the project. The project had the lowest cost of construction per gigalitre, and lowest operating cost in comparison to other seawater desalination plants in Australia. Collaboration was key to the successful delivery of this award winning project, with the project encompassing extensive works in all construction disciplines, including 600,000 m3 of earthworks, civil structures, marine, tunnelling, mechanical, electrical, and building works. The construction area was located near a challenging chemical and marine environment, adjacent to protected cliffs and a near shore reef zone. The project involved complex sub-sea tunneling and marine works. A range of initiatives aimed at minimising operating costs, environmental impacts, and energy use included: • A highly efficient reverse osmosis design that sets an Australian benchmark for efficiency, energy savings and physical footprint. • A pre-treatment process that provides high levels of reliability, uses less energy and reduces chemical dosing requirements. • An innovative diffuser for the saline concentrate that ensures adequate mixing back into the marine environment and guaranteed that the project met tough environmental performance criteria. A highly collaborative approach to working with the client, consortium partners and the
The Adelaide Desalination project.
An aerial view of the Curtis Island HDD project.
Operator led to the delivery of a highly successful award-winning project. Careful programming and planning, combined with a deep commitment to safeguard the sensitive marine environment - choosing tunnelling to create the intake and outfall structures, rather than placing pipes on the seabed – and a determination to exceed the expectations of the client and the local community has led to a world-first innovation, which may have a number of future applications.
of pipe through horizontal directional drilling and trenching in 2012. The 5.8 km of pipe will be DN400 steel, in a project that has a construction period of 21 weeks. A project spokesperson from WDS said Pipeline Drillers Group (PDG) has been awarded the horizontal directional drilling component of the works. Work is scheduled to commence early in 2012, with practical completion expected in the second quarter of 2012. The Roma to Brisbane Pipeline is 100 per cent owned and operated by APA Group and transports natural gas from the gas hub neat Roma to the markets of Brisbane and the regional centres along the pipeline route.
TUNNELLING A SHORE THING FOR CHEVRON Thiess won an $US61.9 million microtunnelling contract for the Chevron-operated Wheatstone Project in Western Australia in 2012. The contract involved Thiess constructing a 1.2 km long tunnelled shore crossing under the ocean. The tunnel connected two offshore gas reserves to Chevron’s greenfield LNG plant at Ashburton North, near Onslow in the state’s north west. The Wheatstone microtunnel was 2.5 m in diameter and was delivered by a tunnel boring machine (TBM) and lined by microtunnelling. The microtunnel accommodates a 1.1 m diameter pipeline to deliver gas from Chevron’s Wheatstone and Iago reserves. Engineering and procurement commenced immediately for the design of the TBM launch shaft, jacking pipes, and TBM retrieval pit. Construction on site commenced after the cyclone season in 2013.
ROMA TO BRISBANE PIPELINE HDD CONTACT AWARDED APA Group awarded WDS a contract for the Roma to Brisbane Pipeline Metro Looping Project, which includes the installation of approximately 5.8 km
COMPANY SECURES MAJOR CONTRACT WITH MELBOURNE WATER In 2012 a company was awarded an $A232 million contract by Melbourne Water to provide maintenance services and low risk capital works to its metropolitan water and waste water network. Under the contract, Wood Group PSN (WGPSN) provided mechanical, electrical and civil maintenance services to several hundred sewage transfer and water treatment facilities across Melbourne. The award of this contract resulted in more than 150 new jobs for WGPSN in Melbourne. Taking a partnership approach to service delivery, a WGPSN management team was based at the Melbourne Water office in Brooklyn, with maintenance personnel working across the city’s southern, eastern and western regions. The contract was effective from 21 August 2012.
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The pipe string being prepared for HDD on the Gladstone Harbour project.
2013
JOINT VENTURE TO DELIVER FIRST MAJOR CONSTRUCTION FOR NORTH WEST RAIL LINK A joint venture between Thiess, John Holland and Spanish company Dragados was selected by the New South Wales Government to construct the tunnels and excavate new underground stations for Sydney’s North West Rail Link. Under the $A1.15 billion Tunnel and Station Civil Works contract, the companies constructed twin 15 km tunnels, which will run between Bella Vista and Epping. These will be the longest rail tunnels ever built in Australia. Four custom-made Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) were used to construct the 6 m diameter tunnels, with the first of the TBMs in the ground by the end of 2014. The team also geared up for a proactive community engagement effort to limit disruption and inconvenience while providing information on the long term benefits of the project.
UNDERTAKING HDD UNDER THE CONDAMINE Pipeline Drillers Group carried out 26 horizontally drilled bores under the Condamine River, Queensland, with part of the works undertaken for the Australia Pacific LNG Project. Since 2008, Pipeline Drillers successfully completed 26 crossings of the Condamine River – a total of 13.64 km. The 2013 horizontal directional drilling (HDD) operation involved the Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) Infield Pipeline Works (IPW) Project, for which Nacap Australia has been contracted as the construction contractor. 78 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The operation for the IPW project involved four 720 m bores, and then a further seven 720 m bores for the APLNG Gathering Project. Pipeline Drillers, subcontracting to Nacap, supplied two maxi rig spreads, an American Augers DD 1100 and a Gallagher DD660, as well as three crews working single shifts on one rig and double shifts on the second rig. All bores were over 720 m long and operating in varying ground conditions including mudstone, sandstone and hard rock. Seven of the bores on the IPW and Gathering projects were opened up to 1,066.8 mm to accommodate the 762 mm steel casing, which had 630 mm high density polyethylene pipelines inserted into the steel casing prior to the pull-back by Pipeline Drillers using a Vermeer 100/120 drill. During drilling on the APLNG Gathering Project, the Condamine River reached a flood height of 14 m on two occasions which delayed the project by three weeks. The pipe side location was completely submerged resulting in damage to pumps, lighting towers and recycling systems.
PERTH PIPELINES TO GET HIGH-TECH WATER IMAGING Water Corporation begun a high-tech program in order to better assess the condition of watermains in the Perth CBD during 2013, which helped manage asset replacement and upgrades. Water Minister Terry Redman announced that the Corporation would use broadband electromagnetic (BEM) imaging as part of an extensive pipe assessment program. A Water Corporation spokesperson told Trenchless Australasia that Rock Solid supplied
the equipment and software licences for the technology. Water Corporation bought the equipment, perform the scanning, capture the data, review the data and make initial interpretations. Key data was then sent to Rock Solid to provide more detailed interpretation and advice. Engineering Construction Services Branch (ECSB) completed the implementation themselves, in conjunction with Perth Region Alliance (PRA). ECSB purchased the hardware, leased the software, trained staff and did the actual testing. PRA was responsible for the excavation, reinstatement, traffic management, construction management and project management. The Water Corporation Asset Management Renewals team co-ordinated the works program, in consultation with the City of Perth and other key stakeholders. The work to permanently replace the pipe which burst along Wellington Street is expected to be complete by mid-June.
utilising Nuflow’s Blueline technology, City Care added another permanent, cost-effective solution to its sewerage, stormwater and potable water pipe repairs work. Nuflow’s unique, non-invasive pipe rehabilitation technology, Blueline, is utilised to line and protect underground pipes from forming cracks, build up or root intrusion. Once the problem was identified, a Blueline liner was pulled into place and inflated with an internal rubber bladder. It was then left to cure and when the bladder was removed, the pipe is structurally rehabilitated and functions as new. This pull-in-place solution is accomplished
by utilising existing access points, which prevents any destruction to architecture, messy construction sites and disruption to normal operations. “We have seen mass failings of networks throughout the region. It gives us great pride to have been chosen as the company to provide the technology that will assist in rehabilitating the drainage network in Christchurch,” said Nuflow director Ed Ahern. Nuflow’s Australian headquarters in Ashmore, on Queensland’s Gold Coast, will manufacture and supply all custommade materials to City Care.
WATER FORCES JOIN TO HELP REBUILD CHRISTCHURCH DRAINAGE SYSTEMS City Care, New Zealand’s leading water and wastewater maintenance service provider, joined Nuflow’s expanding network of licensed installers in 2013. Nuflow provides a cost effective solution to sewerage, stormwater, potable water, fire system and pressure pipe repairs throughout Australia and New Zealand. City Care provides water, wastewater and stormwater network services to over one million New Zealanders. In becoming a licensed installer and
These were the first HDD crossings in Australia to use the latest steering technology for the Gladstone Harbour.
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2014
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NBN CO ROLLS OUT CONSTRUCTION PLAN Australia’s national broadband construction to begin for 1.9 million homes and businesses by June 2016 started in 2014. NBN Co announced a new national roll-out plan revealing the next 1.9 million homes and businesses across more than 400 cities, suburbs and towns set to receive the National Broadband Network (NBN). The expansion of the roll-out across every state and territory is the first to reflect the company’s new multi-technology approach and is an important step toward reaching its goal of 8 million new connections to the NBN by 2020. The plan provides an indicative view of scheduled construction work up to June 2016. It is set to be updated each successive quarter with further detail to reflect ongoing variations brought about by process and technology improvements. NBN Co stated that this greater transparency will give individuals, communities and the telecommunications industry the most accurate short-term view of construction progress while at the same time acknowledging the nature of the rollout.
DOWNER ACQUIRES INFRASTRUCTURE AND DESIGN COMPANY Downer EDI Limited signed an agreement to acquire all of the shares of a major infrastructure and design company for $AU300 million on a cash and debt free basis. Downer acquired $AU300 million shares in Tenix Holdings Australia Pty Limited (Tenix), Downer CEO Grant Fenn said Tenix was an excellent strategic fit. “We have said consistently that we are interested in opportunities that are strategic, grow our capability and the right price,” Fenn said. “The acquisition of Tenix achieves all of these goals. “Tenix is a leader in the electricity, gas and water sectors in Australia and New Zealand. There is little overlap between the two companies and Tenix will be the foundation for a new core Utilities business for Downer.” Fenn said Tenix had strong, long term relationships with some of the largest utility businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Tenix is a low capital intensity business that operates on long term operations and maintenance contracts and has been working with many of its customers for over a decade. Tenix’s Power & Gas and Water businesses contribute about 85 per cent of total revenue. The Resources & Energy business contributes about 15 per cent of revenue. It focuses primarily on gas and renewable energy and this fits well with Downer’s existing capability in these markets. The acquisition of Tenix will be funded through
a $AU300 million committed bank debt facility. As a result, Downer’s on balance sheet gearing is projected to be around 10 per cent at 30 June 2015. The transaction was completed on 31 October 2014.
CONTRACTOR ANNOUNCED FOR MELBOURNE SEWER REVAMP In 2014 Melbourne Water awarded the contractor for a major sewer upgrade project in Melbourne’s inner north. The Carlton Main Sewer Project was awarded to John Holland and Kellogg, Brown and Root Joint Venture. The project oversaw the renewal of 1.35 km of the sewer between Pigdon and Princess Streets in North Carlton, Melbourne. The old sewer is currently being relined internally to minimise cost and disruption to the local community. The 114-year-old Carlton Main sewer services more than 15,000 households and businesses across the Melbourne suburbs of Carlton, Brunswick and southern areas of Coburg. Melbourne Water also constructed a new 510 m sewer under Scotchmer and Pigdon Streets between Rae Street in Fitzroy North and Amess Street in Carlton North.
GLADSTONE HARBOUR PIPELINE REACHES ANOTHER MILESTONE The final section of a gas transmission pipeline
was successfully pushed through a tunnel beneath the Gladstone Harbour to the Santos GLNG plant on Curtis Island, Queensland in June 2014. The 120 pipeline segments, each measuring 36 m in length, were welded together and pushed gradually through the 4.3 km tunnel that was drilled using a tunnel boring machine (TBM). The 3.45 m under-sea tunnel runs 8 m below the sea bed, drilled with a 100 m long TBM weighing 277 tonnes. The operation took four weeks to complete. Santos Vice-President downstream GLNG Rod Duke said the pipeline would soon be ready to deliver gas to Curtis Island. Duke also said the pipeline has been completed without disturbing the local environment, thanks to the TBM tunnel. “When we set out to build a 420 km pipeline from Fairview field to Gladstone we promised to safeguard the environment,” he said. “Our under-sea tunnel has allowed us to cross The Narrows without disturbing the local marine environment and with minimal impact to the surrounding coastal environments. “In the coming weeks the marine crossing pipe will be connected to the rest of Santos GLNG’s 420 km pipeline.” Subcontractor Theiss constructed the tunnel using the TBM application, while the gas transmission pipeline is being built by Santos GLNG’s contractor Saipem Australia.
Gladstone Harbour.
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The view from inside the pipeline looking into the bottom of the shaft on the Amaroo project.
2015
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HEADING NORTH Yarra Valley Water’s Amaroo Main Sewer Project – managed by leading contractor John Holland, with Iplex Pipelines working as the pipe supplier – was a large inside diameter microtunnelling installation undertaken in Australia in 2015. According to estimates from the Victorian State Government’s Metropolitan Planning Authority, Melbourne’s North Growth Corridor – the area between Craigieburn and Wallan – was expected to have an additional 300,000 inhabitants by 2050. As there are no existing sewers servicing the area, Yarra Valley Water responded to the anticipated growth by commissioning the Amaroo Main Sewer Project. This project included the installation of 8.5 km of sewerage infrastructure to collect and transfer the vast majority of sewage in the Northern Growth Corridor. John Holland was awarded the major design and build contract for Amaroo, and has since teamed up with Iplex Pipelines who are supplying pipe products for the installation. Project work started in mid-2015 and was completed by February 2017. The completed sewer line services the burgeoning population of Melbourne’s north. The Amaroo project is notable for its use of FLOWTITE™ glass reinforced plastic pipe (GRP), a composite material manufactured in Adelaide by RPC Pipe Systems under licence from the technology owners Amiantit® in Saudi Arabia. Since December 2011 FLOWTITE™ GRP has been marketed, sold and distributed by Iplex Pipelines, who continue to be the product’s sole Australian supplier. John Holland started early works in June 2015, establishing site offices and access roads and preparing for the delivery of three Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines (TBMs). The excavation of access shafts commenced in mid-2015.
OREWA - GRAVITY WASTEWATER PIPELINE TO OREWA PUMP STATION This project involved the construction of a new 3.15 km gravity wastewater pipeline connecting a series of new subdivisions to an existing pump station. A total of 44 deep manholes and 3.12 km of pipeline (600mm ND) was installed using microtunnelling and horizontal directional drilling (HDD) techniques. The project also included construction of a 3 m ID manhole lifting station to pump wastewater from the proposed pipeline into the existing pump station off Millwater Parkway. This project was a high hazard unit operating under the new mining regulations and key constraints for the project team were completing the works within a strict timeframe. Other challenges included confined space, working with the public near the main road, water ways, swamps and farmland with many trees, some of which included natives.
BRISBANE’S LARGEST SEWER TO GET $A130 MILLION UPGRADE Brisbane’s oldest and largest sewer pipe received an $A130 million upgrade using trenchless technology. Up to 5.7 km of concrete pipe in the 12 km S1 Main Sewer was relined with polyethylene via spiral winding. The project was carried out in several phases, with work on phase one – a 1.3 km section of pipe along Kingsford Smith Drive between Hunt St and Riverview Terrace – due starting in March 2015. According to Queensland Urban Utilities, the sewer, was turning 100 years old at the time, carries 60 per cent of the city’s sewage beneath one of Brisbane’s busiest traffic corridors. Hand-built by miners using traditional tunnelling methods, the S1 Main Sewer services around 750,000 people.
With the pipeline spanning 1.5 m in diameter and buried eight stories beneath the ground, the spiral winding project is one of the most unique sewer projects to be undertaken in Australia, said Queensland Urban Utilities CEO Louise Dudley.
ARROW DRAWS BOWEN DESIGN CONTRACT Arrow Energy entered the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase of its high-profile Bowen Gas Project, awarding the pipeline’s FEED contract to engineering services firm WorleyParsons. Drawing gas from Central Queensland’s Bowen Basin and transporting it to liquefaction facilities at Gladstone, the Bowen Gas Project required considerable trenchless and horizontal directional drilling (HDD) engineering, including several watercourse crossings at the Fitzroy River, parts of the Isaac River and Raglan Creek. Whilst these river crossings utilised HDD, thrust boring was proposed for the crossings of sealed roads.
MELBOURNE UTILITY TRIALS TREE ROOT PRESERVING PIPE TECH Melbourne water utility Yarra Valley Water trialled a new hydro-excavation technology to help preserve as many intrusive tree roots as possible when carrying out pipe maintenance. Hydro-excavation technology uses water pressure to remove the dirt around the tree roots causing minimum disturbance to the roots. By using water pressure, the structural integrity
Rob Carr’s microtunnelling setup on the Green Square project.
of the tree is more likely to be maintained, reducing the risk of possible tree removal. Yarra Valley Water Managing Director Pat McCafferty said that, rather than seek to remove the roots, the water utility had been looking to find an environmentally friendly option to preserve as many tree roots as possible growing in the vicinity of the utility’s pipes. Mr McCafferty also said that Yarra Valley Water has been working in close partnership with council arborists in its service areas to trial the hydro-excavation technology.
CONTRACT AWARDED FOR $A87 MILLION SYDNEY STORMWATER PROJECT Construction group Seymour Whyte announced the awarding of an $A87 million contract for the Green Square Trunk Stormwater Project to the Drying Green Alliance. The Green Square project involves the construction of a 2.4 km stormwater drain beneath central Sydney to address flooding issues within the Green Square urban renewal area and to enable future development.
An old image from inside the S1 sewer, which was almost 100 years old when rehabilitation commenced.
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2016 UNITYWATER UTILISES HDD TO CONSTRUCT $24.2 M SEWERS Unitywater and Pipeline Drillers used horizontal directional drilling (HDD) to construct two new sewerage mains on the Sunshine Coast, worth an estimated $24.2 million. Unitywater will built a 2.5 km sewerage main from Caloundra Rd, along Nicklin Way, and a 3.2 km main from Mountain Creek along Kawana Way to the Kawana Sewerage Treatment Plant. The agreement, signed on 28 October, 2016 was part of a major upgrade to the sewerage network and includes increasing the capacity of a number of connecting sewage pumping stations. Pipeline Drillers Managing Director John Whitbread said, “we are extremely pleased to be awarded this significant upgrade project for Unitywater and the people of the Sunshine Coast”. “It will be a landmark project for the community and Pipeline Drillers, with the longest and largest diameter high density polyethylene pipe (HDPE) installed in Australia using horizontal directional drilling,” he said. Unitywater CEO George Theo said “this is one of the largest drilling programs undertaken by a water utility in Australia and will make a significant contribution towards meeting the demands of growth in areas from Caloundra South to Sippy Downs.” “HDD is the best solution to construct sections of these pipelines as it minimises disruption to the community and the environment.” Unitywater has $418 million worth of sewerage and water supply projects planned for the Sunshine Coast between 2016 and 2021.
SYDNEY WATER BUDGETS AU$2.2 BILLION FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS Sydney Water has budgeted $2.2 billion for total infrastructure projects over four years, providing the foundation for growth in the Harbour City. The money will go towards a number of important infrastructure projects in the City, including the construction of a $27 million wastewater pumping station at Oran Park, which will allow for 7,000 new homes to be built in southwest Sydney. It also recently completed wastewater infrastructure projects in nearby Leppington and Austral, allowing for the construction of a further 12,000 new dwellings to be constructed in the area.
VEOLIA COMPLETES RIVERSTONE WASTEWATER PROJECT With a total length of 3.1 km, the North West Growth Centre (NWGC) Riverstone Wastewater Package 2 catered for anticipated 84 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
population growth in Sydney’s northern suburbs. Awarded to Veolia, the package consisted of three separate lead ins: Wastewater lead in 1 - 1.4 km, DN375 PP, DN375 GRP, DN375 and DN300 PVCU; Wastewater lead in 2 - 0.9 km, DN300 GRP and DN300 PVCU; Wastewater lead in 3 - 0.8 km, DN300 GRP and DN300 PVCU. The lead ins were constructed using open cut trenching and microtunnelling, with Veolia awarding the microtunnelling subcontract to Pezzimenti Tunnelbore. The contracted works also covered clearing project corridors; constructing the sewer lead-in main to be connected to the existing maintenance holes on the Chain of Ponds Carrier; constructing all inlets, maintenance holes, vent shafts and other structures associated with the sewer; and constructing the connection to the existing carriers.
RDO PARTIALLY ACQUIRES AUSSIE VERMEER DEALERSHIPS RDO Equipment Co. announced an agreement with Vermeer Equipment that involves the partial acquisition of several Australian dealerships. The partnership saw RDO Equipment Co. and Vermeer Equipment Holdings (VEH) work together for the supply of machinery and equipment in the Australasian region. Ryan Offutt, Vice President of RDO Equipment Co., said “We are excited to expand our international dealership presence and to grow our relationship with Vermeer.” CEO of Vermeer Corporation Jason Andringa commented “VEH and RDO Equipment Co. have demonstrated a best practice in their efforts to work together to develop a progressive succession plan that will provide customers confidence for years to come.” Vermeer’s Founder Peter Pullan said “I am looking forward to sharing resources, ideas and best practices with RDO Equipment Co. who are a successful machinery dealer in the strong but competitive US market. “I can see many mutual benefits for Vermeer dealerships on both sides of the Pacific.”
WA PLANNING COMMISSION APPROVES AIRPORT LINK DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION The Western Australian Planning Commission approved the Development Application for early works on the Forrestfield-Airport Link. The project involves the construction of a new train line to connect the eastern suburbs of Perth with existing networks in the CBD. Twin bore tunnels will be excavated beneath the
Vemeer Australia Founder Peter Pullan.
Swan River and Tonkin Hwy to accommodate the 8.5 km rail line; three new stations will be created at Belmont, Airport Central and Forrestfield. The early works include the setting up of the main construction facilities, and storage for the tunnel lining segments, slurry treatment plant and other plant required to operate the tunnel boring machines, spoil handling facilities, site offices, warehouse and storage areas. A number of activities were completed at the site, since it was handed to the Salini Impregilo and NRW Joint Venture (JV) in September, including the demolition of buildings, installation of fencing and clearing. The number of workers at the Forrestfield site has also increased, in preparation for the construction of the dive structure, which is expected to begin this month. Trials of jet grouting have already been completed at the Forrestfield site and have begun at the Bayswater site. The process improves ground conditions and stabilises soils in preparation for tunnelling works, by injecting a slurry into soil at a high pressure, while a drill stem rotates and moves toward the surface, creating a homogenous mass of high strength material. It will be used to create overlapping columns at eight locations to allow for the excavation of cross passages between the two tunnels and prevent water from entering the area. Jet grouting were also be used to stabilise soils and support tunnelling for two emergency egress shafts. The JV was awarded the contract to design, build and maintain the link in May.
An aerial view of the one of the Forrestfield Airport Link construction sites.
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2017
UTILITY UTILISES SLIPLINING FOR SEWER REHABILITATION Melbourne Water will utilise Trenchless Technology for an AU$22 million sewer rehabilitation project in the city’s southwest. The utility will use sliplining to reline and rehabilitate manholes on the 4.4 km Williamstown Main Sewer, between Pasco St, Williamstown and Scienceworks, Spotswood. Melbourne Water will install 800 m of 525 mm circular sections, 3.6 km of 1,050 mm by 750 mm ovoid sections, at depths of 8-15 m. The project is designed to provide the Williamstown, Spotswood and Newport communities with a reliable sewerage service, improve public health and the operation of the sewer, minimise blockages, eliminate odour and extend the life of the sewer by 50 years. The project will also eliminate the risk of dry weather sewerage spills due to the poor condition of the of the sewer pipe, reducing the risk of environmental damage.
CRC COMPLETES RECORDS BREAKING HDD INSTALLATION What is believed to be one of Australia’s longest 1 m diameter horizontal directional drilling (HDD) installations has been executed in Cairns, Queensland. With the worksite bordering a popular recreation facility and main road, the team used trenchless methods to complete work on the restricted site footprint. Cairns Regional Council (CRC) successfully completed a major sewer pipeline augmentation using various Trenchless Technology. It engaged local contractor JPMI, who in turn called in Pipeline Drillers and Bothar Boring & Tunnelling as subcontractors, to install 465 m of large-diameter sewer pipes which ran parallel to one of Cairns’ key sporting precincts. The AU$3.23 million project used horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the installation, which is believed to be one of Australia’s longest 1 m diameter drills. The sewer upgrade caused minimal disruption to scheduled events at the popular recreation ground, including the opening of the AU$23.7 million Tobruk Memorial Pool Redevelopment. A network of sewer pump stations within the Cairns CBD feed into Sewage Pump Station K, before transferring the effluent via a 4.3 km rising main to the Marlin Coast Waste Water Treatment Plant. The rising main has the capacity to transfer over 600 litres per second and was constructed in 1970 with diameters varying from DN660 to DN1000. The restraints imposed by the sporting precinct, the highway and natural surroundings, resulted in the project’s tenders specifying the installation use a combination of trenchless pipe jacking and HDD, as well as a small amount of open trench work. The project works included: 35 m of DN1219 MS sleeve 86 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
pipe jacking; 340 m of DN1000 PE100 HDD; and 90 m DN813 mild-steel cement lined open trenching. An entry pit was excavated near the corner of Captain Cook Highway and Lily Street, while the exit pit was to the north near the corner of the highway and Rutherford Street. The pipe was strung along Lake Street, on the eastern side of the recreational area, around the corner onto Lily Street before turning to be parallel with the highway and in line with the entry pit. An agreement was reached to place the jacking pits on private land, within the easement. Jacking the 35 m of DN1219 MS sleeve under Rutherford St was therefore completed with minimal impact on road corridor users, as all associated jacking and receiving activities were outside of the road reserve. CRC Principal Engineer Peter Thoren said that teamwork played a vital role on the project, adding that the construction team went above and beyond the call of duty to complete the works.
FUTURE-PROOFING AUCKLAND’S WATER SUPPLY Hunua 4 is a 31-km long watermain which will once complete run from Watercare’s reservoirs in Manukau to reservoirs in the Auckland CBD and improve the capacity and resilience of Auckland’s water network. Construction of the pipeline has been underway since 2012, with sections up to Market Road, Epsom now in service. McConnell Dowell was awarded the contract to design and construct Section 11, the final 3.6 km section of the pipeline, from Market Road to the Khyber Pass Reservoir in January 2017. Using predominantly microtunnelling methods, we are constructing the new watermain using a tunnel boring machine (TBM) to drive and install 2500 mm ID jacking pipes between six shafts, before lining the tunnel with a 1575 mm OD steel pipe. Once complete, two of the three pipe jacks will be the longest ever completed in New Zealand. The proposed alignment for Hunua 4 Section 11 ran from Market Road in Epsom to Khyber Pass in Grafton and amongst residential properties, major arterial roads, schools and businesses. Constructing the pipeline using traditional open-cut methods would have caused major disruption to the surrounding community. Difficult geotechnical conditions, ranging from very hard basalt to soft clays, created further challenges. The first portion of microtunnelling was completed on a new rail infrastructure project in Auckland, New Zealand.
MICROTUNNELLING ON CRL REACHES MILESTONE The City Rail Link (CRL) will extend Auckland’s passenger rail system past Britomart to connect
comprised 62 km of sewer pipes ranging in diameter from 375 mm to 1,650 mm, providing water and sewerage services to more than 158,000 customers. Abergeldie Complex Infrastructure Pty Ltd and civil engineering contractors Obayashi Corporation formed Abergeldie-Obayashi Joint Venture (JV), which was awarded the contract to design and construct the Stage 2 upgrade. The project is used microtunnelling reduce the impact on residents and the environment, with most above ground works concentrated at entry and exit shafts. Stage 1 and 1A of the Bulimba Creek upgrade were completed in 2004-2006 and 20112013 in Mansfield, Wishart, Eight Mile Plains and MacGregor. Stage 2 was eventually completed in 2018.
VICTORIAN PREMIER REVEALS METRO TUNNEL JV
McConnell Dowell was awarded the contract to design and construct Section 11 of Hunua 4 watermain.
The Victorian Government revealed the joint venture (JV) selected to build the AU$6 billion Metro Tunnel and announced that nearly 7,000 new jobs will be created by the project. Premier Daniel Andrews and Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan announced that the Cross Yara Partnership (CYP) – a JV comprising Lendlease Engineering, John Holland, Bouygues Construction and Capella Capital – had been award the project’s most significant contract. The CYP was responsible for building and fitting out the 9 km tunnel, as well as the construction of five new underground stations at Arden St, Parkville, two CBD stations and one at the Domain Interchange.The government also announced that nearly 7,000 new jobs will be created by the project, including hundreds of apprenticeships and engineering cadets, which it said would give hundreds of Victorians a start in one of Australia’s biggest ever infrastructure projects.
HUNTER WATER USES HDD TO CONSTRUCT NEW PIPELINE UNDER SWANSEA CHANNEL HDD operations on the record-breaking Cairns Regional Council project.
to the existing regional rail network at Mt Eden, and provide for an estimated population growth of 700,000 in the next 30 years. CRL Project Director Chris Meale said a microtunnel boring machine (MTBM), which has been excavating and installing a new stormwater pipe under Albert St, had finished the first leg of its journey. The MTBM was chosen for the project due to its safety benefits, as it kept workers out of the tunnel and provided a far greater level of control over the rate of excavation and the management of different ground conditions.
“What will be a highly efficient and reliable transport choice for Auckland is now visibly taking shape,” Mr Meale said.
BULIMBA CREEK STAGE 2 SEWER UPGRADE PROGRESSES Construction on Queensland Urban Utilities AU$55 million Bulimba Creek Stage 2 Sewer Upgrade continued to progress. The project included a new 4.25 km sewer main southeast of Brisbane, between Wecker Road, Mansfield, and Cadogan Street, Carindale. The existing Bulimba Creek Trunk Sewer
Hunter Water constructed a new pipeline under Swansea Channel using horizontal directional drilling (HDD), as part of a AU$3 million project to improve water security for residents in Swansea, New South Wales. Kurri Kurri-based trenchless contractor Maxibor is completed the HDD installation of the 300 m pipeline, at depths of up to 20 m below the channel. An estimated 4,500 properties south of Swansea Bridge receive their water from a single watermain laid on the floor of the channel. A failure in the pipeline’s underwater section would result in homes, schools and businesses in the area being without water for up to a week due to the difficulty of having to make the repairs under water. ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 87
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Inside the Merri Creek Sewer.
2018
MERRI CREEK SEWER RELIEF PROJECT USES KWIK-ZIP SPACERS The Merri Creek Sewer Relief Project used kwik-ZIP spacers to centralise pipe during installations in 2018. The project involved the rehabilitation of a 100-year-old brick sewer running along Merri Creek, through Coburg, Brunswick and Northcote in Melbourne. Works involved the installation of DN 225 PVC screw pipe inside of eight separate 380 mm outside diameter bore holes totalling 346 m. L&D Micro Tunnelling – completing the microtunnelling works on behalf of Land Engineering, Quinn Civil, and JHL Civil for Melbourne Water and CPB Contractors – used kwik-ZIP HD 50 spacers to protect and centralise the PVC pipe during installation. “The spacers are quick and easy to install, they also aid in the joining of the pipe providing a strong handle to screw threads together,” said L&D Micro Tunnelling co-owner Chris Dean. The Merri Creek sewer is part of Melbourne Water’s sewerage network, which services customers in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne. After inspections revealed that the sewer was in poor condition and in need of an upgrade, Melbourne Water began upgrade works that will ensure a reliable sewage service for a minimum of 50 years.
YARRA VALLEY WATER REHABILITATES HAWTHORN SEWER SYSTEM Sewer relining project.
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Yarra Valley Water rehabilitated more than 50 km of underground sewer pipes as part of the Hawthorn Sewer Improvement Project.
The sewage system in Hawthorn, east of Melbourne’s CBD, included some pipes that are more than 100 years old, that collect and transport sewage flows to Melbourne Water’s Werribee or Carrum sewage treatment plants for treatment or disposal. After inspecting the system, more than 50 km of pipe was found to be old, in poor condition or had recently experienced multiple blockages. The project extended the operational life of rehabilitated pipes by up to 50 years and reduced the likelihood of sewage spills during heavy storms. To complete the works as soon as possible, Yarra Valley Water engaged two contractors – Abergeldie Watertech and Interflow – to carry out works simultaneously. In addition to Yarra Valley Water’s sewer improvement works, Melbourne Water also invested AU$100 million in a relining and manhole rehabilitation program for 15 km of sewer infrastructure across Melbourne from 2018 to 2021.
UEA COMPLETES INSTALLATION OF PACIFIC LINK One of Australasia’s leading trenchless contractors, UEA, installed the highest capacity telecommunications cable between Australian and the US, via New Zealand. The company managed the design and construction of ocean outfall installation, which relied on an accurate HDD execution. After completing a number of successful ocean outfall projects, the contractor was awarded the 1,300 m design and construct HDD ocean outfall and beach manhole construction contract. The project at large included a new submarine cable linking Australia and New Zealand to Hawaii and the mainland US, which helped eliminate the distance between all Pacific communities and
kwik-ZIP spacers being used on the installation of the new pipeline as part of the Merri Creek project.
boost socio-economic development through the provision of broadband access. With a design capacity of 42 tbps, at the time it made Hawaiki the highest cross-sectional capacity link between Australia, New Zealand and the US. As a part of the HDD design component, UEA was responsible for the land-based survey of the route and the review of the near shore survey data, to ensure the bore design met all environmental approvals and fit within the constraints placed by the client and approving organisations. The company’s inhouse team undertook geotechnical investigation, service location works and potholing of existing assets. This work helped to confirm a suitable entry angle within the entry site and also to avoid a live 1,600 mm hand dug sewer tunnel. The bore design allowed for sufficient clearance to the cliff face and near shore marine environments, eliminating the risk of drilling fluid loss to the formation. The design also met the requirements of being located at least 100 m away from all rock reefs and exiting within sand ground conditions.
UTILITY USES HDD FOR NEW PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION The construction of a new sewer pipeline in Adelaide’s northwest used horizontal directional drilling (HDD) in 2018. As part of a AU$12 million upgrade of the North Le Fevre sewer network, SA Water has contracted Fulton Hogan to install 4.5 km new sewer main using HDD. The new pipeline connected the Largs North Wastewater Pump Station, currently under refurbishment, with the Ethelton Pump Station. The new pipeline was planned to run under Narkunda Street, Jetty Road, Mead Street,
UEA installed the highest capacity telecommunications cable between Australian and the US, via New Zealand.
Semaphore Road, Causeway Road, Bower Road and Bartley Terrace. “This overall project is focused on ensuring our network can support future growth in the area,” said SA Water Senior Manager of Customer and Community Engagement Tara Hage. “To do this, we need to make some changes to our infrastructure to increase capacity, so it can continue to provide a reliable sewerage service. Hage said the project would improve odour management, overflows and help meet the demand created by urban development in the area. “Together with our contractor Fulton Hogan, we’re committed to minimising construction impacts on both residents and commuters, and are working hard to manage any odour, noise or environmental requirements associated with the project,” she said. “The new pipeline is being installed using a construction method known as directional boring.It requires less excavation than open trenching and therefore has less impact on people living in or travelling through the area. “The majority of work is being carried out during weekdays, however some night and weekend work may be required.” The project was finished by mid-2019.
WATER CORP PLANS TRENCHLESS IMPROVEMENT OF REGIONAL WATER SUPPLY Water Corporation outlined a new AU$10.8 million project to improve water supply to Northampton and Geraldton, including the use of drilling to install water mains under the Chapman River. A new 10.7 km water supply
main would be built from a pump station along Edward Road in Meru, connecting to the existing water tank off Chapman Valley Road in Moresby. After the majority of the water main was constructed within the road reserves along the planned route, Power on Cabling drilled two sections of water main under the Chapman River in October 2018. The company commenced drilling on the southern side of the river to create the required trenches for the proposed mains, before the actual mains are pulled from the northern end of the river underneath the river bed. Approximately 400 m of pipe for both drills will be welded and strung on rollers above the ground and adjacent to the bank, before they are pulled through the trench.
SA WATER DRILLS NEW MAIN FOR MARRABEL SA Water used directional drilling to replace approximately 68 m of water main in Marrabel to reduce the impact of water main breaks on regional customers. SA Water worked with Trenchless Pipelaying Contractors to directionally drill a new water main underneath an existing concrete stormwater culvert on Saddleworth Road. The method was selected due to the advantages of minimising inconvenience to road users and completing directional drilling installation in one continuous length of 125 mm high-density polyethylene pipe instead of needing to connect individual lengths of pipe. SA Water General Manager of Asset Operations and Delivery Mark Gobbie said the replacement is on top of works already completed on a different stretch of Saddleworth Road earlier this year, as is part of a program of main replacement works being completed this year.
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An aerial view of the Direct Pipe operations on the Army Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, New Zealand.
2019
ADEPT AWARDED LEVEL CROSSING REMOVAL WORKS Adept Civil Group was awarded a contract for the next stage of level crossing removal works in Melbourne, Victoria in 2019. Works to remove the Seaford Road level crossing, part of the Frankston train line, were completed and operations are continued throughout 2019. Adept Civil will undertake sewer and watermain relocation works, including open cut and boring to install 300 m of sewer and 1.2 km of watermain at Carrum Station.
MCCONNELL DOWELL SETS DIRECT PIPE WORLD RECORD A microtunnel boring machine (MTBM) called ‘Blanche’ set a new world record with a drive of 1496.48 m. The MTBM, located at Watercare’s Army Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant in Whangaparaoa, New Zealand, completed what is currently the longest ever stretch of pipe laid by the Direct Pipe® tunnelling methodology. According to the contractor, McConnell Dowell, the installation is a new world record. The MTBM is being used to replace an old 2.8 km outfall pipeline. On Friday 13 July, 2019 the NZ$6.2 million (AU$5.8 million) Herrenknecht MTBM surpassed the previous record of 1,495 m set in Texas, US last year. Direct Pipe is a Herrenknecht trademarked MTBM that combines the benefits of microtunnelling and horizontal directional drilling into one machine, allowing the borehole to be excavated as a prefabricated pipeline is installed in one long drive. The Direct Pipe system has been designed to 90 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
achieve drive speeds of up to 30 m a day and is generally used to install pipelines under rivers and other large bodies of water in Europe. “This is the first time the Direct Pipe system has been used in New Zealand,” said McConnell Dowell Project Manager Chris Powell. “As a consequence we weren’t constrained by traditional applications and were able to use the Direct Pipe system it in ways not explored before. “We set some pretty high expectations, we learnt much and achieved a real global stepchange in how this new tunnelling technology can be used.” Herrenknecht Asia Pipeline Expert and Area Sales Manager Ben Hayes congratulated McConnell Dowell on using the method to achieve a world record. “The hands-on site team have been particularly impressive in their ability to adapt and overcome hurdles encountered – along with the support of Herrenknecht site personnel with their considerable Trenchless Technology expertise – to ensure an efficient and safe execution with a technology that was essentially new to them,” said Mr Hayes. Construction upgrades to the treatment plant began in August 2017 and was completed in early 2019. The following year McConnell Dowell completed the drive on Watercare’s Snells Algies wastewater pipe and outfall project with the MTBM setting a record of 2021 m, surpassing the previous mark set in New Zealand by 92 m.
SNOWY HYDRO AWARDS AU$5.1B CONTRACT Snowy Hydro awarded the Future Generation Joint Venture (JV) a AU$5.1 billion contract for the Snowy 2.0 project in 2019. Snowy Hydro finalised an engineer, procure and
power station with pumping capabilities. “We are extremely pleased by the award of this iconic project and are highly motivated to start delivering,” said Clough CEO and Managing Director Peter Bennett. Bennett said the company’s local expertise would be key to delivering this infrastructure project.
NZ UTILITY AWARDS MAJOR CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT
construct contract for the Clough, Salini Impregilo and Lane JV on the pumped hydro expansion project, designed to transition Australia to a renewable energy future. According to the contract, Future Generation – which was named preferred contractor in February – will lead the civil and electro mechanical works, while Voith Hydro will deliver hydro-generation technology in the new underground power station. The Snowy Mountains Scheme consists of 145 km of interconnected tunnels and pipelines and 80 km of aqueducts. The Snowy 2.0 project will link the two existing dams within the scheme, Tantangara and Talbingo, through underground tunnels and an underground
Watercare signed the construction contract for its NZ$1.2 billion (AU$1.1 billion) Central Interceptor wastewater tunnel. On Thursday 14 March, 2019 Watercare signed the contract with the Ghella–Abergeldie Joint Venture (JV) from the group of contractors the utility had previously shortlisted to construct the tunnel and its associated infrastructure. The 13 km wastewater pipeline is a vital infrastructure project and forms part of a strategy to protect and enhance the natural environment. In addition to the Central Interceptor, Watercare has announced it will deliver other projects in the area including separating stormwater and wastewater tunnels. The largest of these projects is the Grey Lynn wastewater tunnel, a 2 km extension of the Central Interceptor. Construction started with site works in August 2019 and the whole project is expected to be completed by 2025.
METRO TUNNEL WORKS PROGRESSING Construction of the Metro Tunnel Project progressed forward with excavation works
in Melbourne, Victoria during 2019. In 2018, the Victorian Government awarded the Rail Infrastructure Alliance a AU$1 billion works package for the AU$11 billion project which commenced shortly after. The alliance comprises CPB Contractors, John Holland, AECOM, as well as project owner Rail Projects Victoria and rail franchisee Metro Trains Melbourne. Major construction started in March at the South Yarra site, where the eastern tunnel entrance will be located, where works will be focused on creating the tunnel boring machine (TBM) retrieval shaft. Works also continued to take place at the TBM support site on Edmund Herring Oval, south of the city’s CBD, with works at the site continuing until the end of April 2019. In Kensington, construction also moved forward at the side of the western tunnel entrance, where utility location is taking place in the rail corridor between Kensington Station and Maribyrnong River in site preparation and service investigation works. From late March to early May, to support the construction of State Library station, sewer relocation works took place on Little La Trobe Street in the CBD precinct. This included excavation, boring a new sewer line, installation of pipes and pits, backfilling and road reinstatement. Around 1,000 people will work on the Rail Infrastructure Alliance package, including almost 100 apprentices, trainees and engineering cadets. Construction of the Metro Tunnel is expected to be completed in 2025.
Construction of Melbourne Metro’s eastern tunnel.
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Bothar Boring & Tunnelling completed the installation of a new watermain in Victoria.
2020 MARCH CATO COMPLETES NZ CUT-IN March Cato and Olsen Welding were part of the team that successfully completed the cut-in of a new 16.5 t valve spool in Auckland. The new spool was cut-in to the existing 1,254 mm Waikato No.1 over the Christmas holidays, March Cato said in a social media post. The work was undertaken as part of the Waikato 50 project in Tuakau, near Auckland, where March Cato is assisting with a new water treatment plant that will support Auckland’s drinking water requirements. “It was fantastic to work alongside some great engineers and leaders at Fletcher/BPC, BECA and of course Watercare,” the company said. “This critical piece of works demonstrates the amazing things we can achieve through careful, thorough and detailed planning.” March Cato said it looked forward to returning to site in 2021 to help backfill the hole made late last year.
PEZZIMENTI TUNNELBORE COMPLETES RAIL WORKS The company’s Queensland team successfully completed numerous trenchless works during the rail possession shutdown period. Pezzimenti Tunnelbore shared images of the project on social media, saying the completion had “exceeded expectations”. 92 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Rob Carr lowering the microtunnelling machine into a shaft on Lonsdale Street in Melbourne.
The team had five days to complete the works, including the initial site establishment and the re-instatement of work areas upon work completion. Over the shutdown period, the team successfully undertook vacuum extraction microtunnelling, the installation and removal of 32 m of DN540 mild steel casing and the installation of 32 m of DN400 RCP Class 4 jacking pipe. Pezzimenti Tunnelbore said despite the fiveday shutdown, the project was delivered on an accelerated program.
KILLARD GROUP ACQUIRES INSITUFORM Insituform Holdings – a Killard Group entity –acquired all Insituform Pacific Pty Ltd (IPPL) shares, with IPPL now also forming part of the Killard Group. The purchase of the IPPL entity by Killard expanded operations into Victoria and Queensland while simultaneously strengthening its existing capabilities. Killard Infrastructure CEO Lee Edwards said the purchase represents an exciting step in the company’s continued development and positioning in the water sector. Killard Group Managing Director Jerry Daly added that IPPL has forged an excellent market reputation for the successful delivery of rehabilitation services in the wastewater sector. “We are delighted to welcome IPPL as a sister company to the Killard Group and look forward to working with and supporting the existing team to help grow their business and implement new and innovative trenchless solutions,” he said. Killard’s southern region branch will now service clients in Victoria, Queensland,
Tasmania, South Australia and parts of southern New South Wales where it will further strengthen its existing partnering relations. IPPL’s change in ownership aimed to increase service delivery, improve its overall support and assist in providing excellent customer relations; the change will not alter IPPL’s delivery obligations to any existing cliental, instead offering a much broader service due to Killard’s inhouse capability.
ROB CARR DIGS DEEP IN MELBOURNE Rob Carr continued to make strong progress on a project that will deliver vital wastewater services to an inner-city population that is expanding at an exponential rate. The second instalment of a four-stage strategy to install a secondary 900 m long DN 1400 glassfibre reinforced plastic (GRP) sewer line under Lonsdale Street in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, the Lonsdale Street Sewer Upgrade was progressing on schedule through the work of expert trenchless contractor Rob Carr and major Melbourne water utility City West Water (CWW). Melbourne’s sewer network is more than a century old and a range of sewer works have been tabled by the Victorian State Government in order to prevent the prospect of an outdated and inefficient system. Rob Carr was appointed by CWW in June 2019 and, with its design partner SMEC and client CWW, liaised with all relevant stakeholders to ensure the project commenced on schedule and in an orderly fashion. Launch time After weeks of excavation activities, Rob Carr
contractors, with peak construction seeing nine work fronts with a total of approximately 80 people. Maxibor were one of these contractors and were responsible for the HDD pipe installation. Iplex supplied the PE-HSCR pipe, while local people and local businesses were also provided with additional employment and business during the construction.
PRIMUS LINE COMPLETES TRIPLE REHABILITATION
An aerial view of Logan City Council’s largest HDD project.
completed the 23 m deep, 6 m inside diameter (ID) launch shaft on time in late February 2020, with all jacks set and the microtunnel boring machine (MTBM) lowered in at the site on Lonsdale Street between King and William streets. The project was eventually completed in late 2020 and the contractor was subsequently awarded the next stage of the project.
LOGAN CITY COUNCIL COMPLETES COMPLEX PROJECT WITH HDD Logan City Council completed the longest underground drilling program in the Queensland city’s history by using HDD. The horizontal directional drill (HDD) was part of a larger project between Greenbank and Flagstone Central that will initially service two new residential developments in Greenbank and North Maclean. The council used HDD to lay pipes for more than 1.32 km from Greenbank to Flagstone to connect to a wastewater facility, with the new section of infrastructure comprising part of the 34 km of the Greater Flagstone trunk wastewater pipelines and 12 new pump stations. The original time frame for the project was an anticipated five months; however, the project took nine months to complete due to harder than anticipated geological conditions. Despite the slight delay, the project was able to reap multiple benefits for the community by allowing the transport of wastewater from homes and businesses in Greater Flagstone to the wastewater treatment plant at the Cedar Grove Environmental Centre. The large project required the work of seven
Primus Line was the first choice of remedy for Hunter Water to repair the supply of potable water in Newcastle, New South Wales. The mild steel cement-lined pipeline DN 900 PN12 runs underneath a busy street and a highway access with two opposing bends of 22.5°. With only two access points and a myriad of project challenges, works had to be conducted with a flexible and adaptable trenchless solution – being the Primus Line’s flexible Kevlar® reinforced liner and corresponding end fittings. This flexibility allows the Primus Line® system to be installed through consecutive bends up to 45° and the robust liner can also withstand bends of 90° depending on the pipeline characteristics. The section requiring rehabilitation was only approximately 140 m. Upon investigating this pipeline section, Primus Line developed two options for rehabilitating the trunk main. Hunter Water could choose to either install one Primus Liner DN 500 PN16 with an inner diameter of 452 mm, which would grant Hunter Water a utilisation of under 25 per cent or install three Primus Liners DN 450 PN16 with an inner diameter of 396 mm, granting the utility a utilisation of nearly 60 per cent. Installing three Primus Liners with the larger DN 500 was not an option as the liners could not entirely inflate inside a DN 900 host pipe, considering a minimum inner diameter of 1,000 mm or greater would be necessary. Additionally, the friction coefficient of the Primus Liner is with a K-factor of 0.028 lower than the friction coefficient of the existing main. This showed Hunter Water through its calculations that a reduction in diameter would be acceptable, so the Primus Line 3-in-1 solution was chosen as the solution to obtain a higher utilisation. The Primus Line system’s entire installation was completed within one week, including a separate pressure test with 15 bar conducted for each liner. This trenchless method enabled the Newcastle region’s busy traffic flow to continue smoothly without interruption, caused minimal impacts to the environment and allowed residents to continue with day-to-day activities. Additionally, this project was the first instance of the Primus Line 3-in-1 solution’s implementation outside of Europe and demonstrated greatsuccess for the Australian industry.
BOTHAR DELIVERS ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL VICTORIAN PROJECT Bothar Boring & Tunnelling Australia completed the installation of a new watermain in Victoria. To complete the project, Bothar used one of the many microtunnel boring machines (MTBM) in its fleet: the Herrenknecht AVN1800-TB M2150 fitted with a DA2225 extension kit that gives the machine an outside diameter of 2225 mm. The machine has a maximum torque of 554 kNm, a permanent torque of 424 kNm and is fitted with four drive motors, making it the perfect selection for this particularly challenging project. During the bore, the MTBM jacked through more than 250 MPa basalt ground conditions via a DN1800 RCJP, supplied by the John Holland–KBR Joint Venture. The project was successfully completed on time and on budget which, owed to some significant material issues hindering the tunnelling operations, is a testament to the continual commitment of the team involved. The total length of the drive was 425 m with more than half of that distance in the 250 MPa basalt; this proved a great challenge to the project as the disc cutters needed to be changed every two to three pipes. Bothar worked collaboratively with the John Holland-KBR Joint Venture and client Melbourne Water to successfully complete the project.
The three-in-one line installed by Primus Line for Hunter Water.
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2021
PCM ACQUIRES TRENCHLESS AUSTRALASIA AND NO-DIG DOWN UNDER Prime Creative Media (PCM) acquired Trenchless Australasia, and the No-Dig Down Under event, from Great Southern Press as of 31 March 2021. “We have long admired the contributions Trenchless Australasia has made to the sector, and we look forward to continuing to support its growth,” said Ms. Zelda Tupicoff, COO of Prime Creative Media. “Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in the strength of Australia’s economy, and we are proud to play our part with the publication of the magazine, its website and newsletter.” Ms Tupicoff knows the publication well, as the previous CEO of Great Southern Press. PCM also took on The Australian Pipeliner as part of the acquisition. The acquisition is welcomed by Chris Frangos President of the Australasian Society for Trenchless Technology. “The ASTT is pleased to see Prime Creative Media acquire Trenchless Australasia,” said Mr Frangos. “Great Southern Press has produced a world class publication for the trenchless sector that will grow and benefit from the larger portfolio of infrastructure related publications managed by Prime Creative Media.
ROB CARR COMPLETES COMPLEX INSTALLATION Rob Carr completed infrastructure works in difficult ground conditions for the Fulton Hogan Delplant Beca (FHDB) Joint Venture in Victoria during 2021. Rob Carr employed its Iseki slurry pressured balanced machines to install 98 m of 470 OD GRP pipe under Evelyn Street and Fletcher Road in Frankston in record time for FHDB. The works were undertaken in water charged
and soft silty sand ground conditions that had seen two previous contractors’ efforts to complete the job prove unsuccessful. In a social media post, Rob Carr said FHDB had entrusted Rob Carr only with the works and both groups had collaborated to ensure the operation was completed successfully. “Given the works’ criticality, Rob Carr had one of its most experienced TBM operators on the job, Jason Shirtcliffe, who, along with his crew, used every ounce of their experience to ensure the completion of the line,” the company said. FHDB is a team of constructors, designers and planners delivering works for South East Water in Victoria. Established more than 30 years ago and now a part of Soletanche Bachy, Rob Carr has specialist capabilities in microtunnelling, deep shaft and caisson construction and complex service installations.
WATERNSW SELECTS ARRP CONSTRUCTION PARTNERS Diona and Abergeldie were named WaterNSW’s new construction partners for its Asset Renewals and Replacements Program (ARRP). The $80 million program will see the partners deliver multi-disciplinary packages across regional New South Wales and Greater Sydney, including civil, structural, mechanical and electrical capital works and rehabilitation. The contract will be delivered over a period of five years, with an option to extend another three years. Abergeldie CEO Mark Bruzzone said the company’s previous experience with WaterNSW will ensure the program is delivered safely and on time. “We are looking forward to continuing to grow our collaborative relationship with WaterNSW,” he said.
Aqua Metro Service was awarded the State and National Australian Water Association Organisational Excellence Award for the Wara Paring Indigenous Civil Construction Project.
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“This framework will provide longterm employment opportunities for both WaterNSW and Abergeldie in regional NSW. “At Abergeldie, we deliver the complex infrastructure needed to build better communities and we are excited to continue on our mission with WaterNSW.” AssetReady, a joint venture between WSP and SMEC, was recently appointed as the project’s Engineering Design Partner.
INTERFLOW INTRODUCES NEW WATER MAIN RENEWAL SYSTEM Interflow’s new RediFlow system combines the company’s Titeflow® H112 and patented INFRASTOP® technologies. By integrating these products into one synergistic process, Interflow provided its customers and the community with an ‘all-inone’ package for renewing ageing water main pipeline infrastructure. Traditional shutdowns using network valves are disruptive, impacting hundreds of customers at any one time. The Infrastop component within the RediFlow system can greatly reduce the number of impacted homes by isolating only those pipeline sections specific to the works being carried out. Interflow’s Titeflow process then installs a new tight fit HDPE pipe into the host pipe, restoring its structural integrity.
ADEPT CIVIL WINS SEWER UPGRADE CONTRACT Adept Civil Group will undertake the Everley Branch Sewer Upgrade project in Victoria with Taylors and Western Water. The project works will include the supply and installation of more than 1.2 km of branch sewer to service Capitol Property Group’s new residential development in Everley Estate, Sunbury. Adept Civil will use its specialised microtunnelling technology in partnership with open cut methods for delivery of the project. In a social media post announcing the contract award, the company said it was excited to be contributing to a new development on the doorstep of Melbourne’s CBD and close to the city’s main travel hub at Tullamarine Airport. “Our team at Adept Civil Group put in an enormous amount of work in preparation for our submission and no doubt our collaborative approach, our past history on delivering on our promise and overall focus on safety, were just a few of the reasons we were awarded this project. “We are looking forward to working very closely with Taylors and Western Water ensuring the successful delivery of this project,” the company said.
Wilmot Pipelining installed a UV CIP liner in Oakhampton under the Hunter Valley Flood Mitigation scheme.
WILMOT INSTALLS LARGEST EVER UV LINER Wilmot Pipelining has successfully installed Australia’s largest ever UV cured-in-place (CIP) liner. Wilmot Pipelining is an industry leader in trenchless solutions for underground infrastructure rehabilitation. The company’s largest and most recent project took place in Oakhampton under the Hunter Valley Flood Mitigation scheme. The New South Wales Department of Industry Local Land Services tendered for the repair and relining of 17 sites throughout the Hunter Valley region in mid 2020. According to Wilmot Managing Director Andrew Wilmot, two of the company’s competitors said the job could not be done, stating relining in this particular Oakhampton site was not possible. This project was fast-tracked due to the collapse of a section of the existing culvert during the April floods, leaving a large and dangerous sinkhole in the road liable to cave. Using UV technology and the existing concreted invert, the team at Wilmot was able to pull through a glide foil followed by the liner, having engaged German partner Brandenburger to manufacture a custom liner for the site. The Wilmot team also tested the liner prior to the 255 m installation with a site test sample flown in from Germany in June to confirm the suitability of the liner for the site conditions. The trial worked perfectly and the 255m of the custom liner was ordered by the engineering team. The Wilmot crew made the site safe in May by excavating 14 m underground to the collapsed culvert and installing box shoring for the access point to pull through both the upstream and downstream liners, making up 255 m in total. Upon the arrival of the liners, the Wilmot team operated for six days straight around the clock and the liners were cured.
Mr Wilmot said he was very proud and humbled by the company’s achievement. This milestone has now put Wilmot Pipelining on the map as a national industry leader in large pipeline CIP relining projects.
INDIGENOUS CIVIL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT WINS NATIONAL AWARD Aqua Metro Services, in partnership with Melbourne Water, was awarded the State and National Australian Water Association Organisational Excellence Award for the Wara Paring Indigenous Civil Construction Project. The Organisational Excellence Award recognises innovative initiatives within the water industry that drive prosperity and sustainability. It also recognises a need for change within the industry and places high value on initiatives that ‘Reimagine our Future’. Wara Paring Civil was founded through the sharing of Aboriginal culture and history within a safe and respectful environment. Enabling a true understanding empowered self-reflection across personal and professional responsibility which conceived a flourishing kinship with a shared dream of creating real, sustainable outcomes for Aboriginal Australia. The Wara Paring Indigenous Civil Construction Project is a first-of-its-kind, 100 per cent Indigenous-owned business in Victoria. The project has a vision to ignite hope, establish respect and deliver sustainable outcomes across our waterways and connected lands. The name ‘Wara Paring’ translates in English to “come walk the path together”, inspiring industry change and encouraging total reconciliation for a better future. Wara Paring Civil provides non-destructive digging (NDD) and hydro-excavation services to safely excavate soil and materials without causing unnecessary damage to existing underground utilities, whilst minimising harm to the environment.
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Trenchless Technology Trailblazers
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The following pages provide you an insight into the key players in the trenchless community. We take a look at how each of these trailblazers first started, their biggest milestones and how they have evolved over time. The trenchless trailblazers section features 30 trenchless businesses that have all contributed to the work achieved today and supported the ASTT over the past 30 years.
Adept Civil
98
KRE
118
Primus Line
138
Aussie Trenchless Supplies
100
kwik-ZIP
120
Rangedale
140
Austeck
102
March Cato
122
Rob Carr
142
Bothar
104
Maxibor
124
RSM
144
Edge Underground
106
McConnell Dowell
126
SECA
146
HDI Lucas
108
Melfred Borzall
128
SEKISUI
148
Hynds
110
Pezzimenti Trenchless
130
Tracto-Technik
150
Interflow
112
Pezzimenti Tunnelbore
132
UEA
152
Iplex Pipelines
114
Picote
134
Vermeer Australia
154
Killard Infrastructure
116
Prime Drilling
136
Wilmot Pipelining
156
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ADEPT CIVIL
20 years of water asset management Adept Civil Group protects Victoria’s water security and delivers critical sewer infrastructure to the state’s first dedicated quarantine facility.
A
ept Civil Group is a fully accredited water infrastructure contractor based in Melbourne, and specialises in the supply and installation of sewerage and drainage pipelines, pump stations and associated services for the metropolitan water boards and tier one contractors of Victoria. Managing director Anthony Panozzo formed the company in 1999. From its initial staff of three, a lone twin cab tipper and a few hand tools, Adept Civil has been able to expand its team and its reach. The company has grown into a thriving team of more than 40 engineers, skilled project managers, supervisors, machine operators, pipe specialists and labourers. Over the years, Panozzo has established lasting relationships with major water
Adept has contributed to major projects like Melbourne Metro Tunnel, the West Gate Tunnel, and Chandler Highway.
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authorities like City West Water. Adept began as a reactive maintenance crew offering on-call assistance with house connection branch (HCB) dig outbursts and ruptured water mains. This work would consist of hand excavations in the backyards of houses within City West Water’s servicing area, repairing collapsed sewers and burst mains at all times of day or night. Adept’s capabilities continued to expand with the accumulation of more staff and the purchasing of greater machinery. After much hard work delivering large-scale sewer and water construction projects, Adept went on to become an accredited contractor with all water authorities in the state. The business has evolved organically with the
accrual of jobs and equipment. The company has had excellent retention and long-standing loyalties, which may be credited to its thriving culture. Business development manager Quentin Powell has celebrated more than 20 years of service with the company, as have many other staff. “Adept has great people and practices in place where the day-to-day decisions are shared and completed as a collective,” says Powell. Over the years, the company has achieved some commendable milestones, contributing to major projects like the Melbourne Metro Tunnel early works, sewer relocation on the West Gate Tunnel, and water works on the Chandler Highway. These projects have been of epic scale with budgets of up to tens of millions.
Adept’s capabilities continue to expand with the accumulation of staff and the purchase of new machinery.
“We know the equipment is class leading - it was just a matter of gaining the confidence locally, building our local service support partnerships.” The company also considers purchasing its Vermeer AXIS laser guided boring machine as one of the highlights of its 22year history. “The addition of the Vermeer AXIS laser guided boring machine to our fleet not only complemented our existing civil division but also provided our clients with an all-encompassing microtunnelling offering,” Panozzo says. “In-house microtunnelling capabilities allowed Adept greater control over the delivery and cost of projects.” Previously, the company had had to subcontract laser guided machines for works. Panozzo said they chose the Vermeer AXIS machine for its reliability in varying ground conditions and its pinpoint accuracy. Most recently, Adept Civil was awarded the contract to deliver critical water and sewer infrastructure for the Mickleham Quarantine Facility project. Designed to support returning travellers to Australia, the project will also
provide a boost to the Australian economy and help protect the health of the community. The Mickleham facility is funded by the Federal Government and can host 3000 beds. Before landing on the Mickleham location, the government had floated the prospect of an Avalon site; however, it was found that Avalon did not have sewage facilities and was home to protected wetlands.
While COVID-19 was difficult for the company in terms of ensuring constant workflow, Adept is proud that it has remained loyal to its suppliers, “which is a crucial part of any business, especially in difficult times,” Powell explains. For more information go to www.adeptcivilgroup.com.au
Adept Civil team onsite.
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AUSSIE TRENCHLESS
Mr Meredith (second from left) after winning the New Technology Award for his HOT SLEEVE product at No-Dig Down Under 2017.
Aussie Trenchless dedicated to innovation, quality and safety When ‘technology’ is in the name of the industry you specialise in, there’s always pressure to consistently deliver the latest and greatest innovations and cutting-edge products. It’s no easy feat, but it’s a promise Aussie Trenchless has consistently delivered on since it was established eight years ago.
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hen it was formed in 2014, Aussie Trenchless was committed to scouring the globe for the latest trenchless products and facilitating their introduction to the Australasian market. The scope of the business hasn’t stopped there, with Aussie Trenchless now supplying products around the world from its base in Sydney, NSW. The company’s Director Chris Meredith, who will be known to many as the founder of Kembla Watertech, says he is committed to pioneering state-of-the-art solutions. “From a personal point of view, I’m very passionate about contributing and assisting business owners to grow and enhance their footprint within the trenchless market locally and internationally – it’s part of the DNA of the no-dig industry,” he says. “We’re proud of not just the products we offer, but also the knowledge and experience we have to support infrastructure owners and contractors on a variety of underground pipeline rehabilitation techniques. “Founded on more than 40 years involvement in the water industry, Aussie Trenchless’ skillset covers pipeline assessment, cleaning and CCTV techniques, as well as various rehabilitation processes such
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as expanding spiral lining, grouted fixed diameter spiral lining, fold and form lining and pipe lining segments, all to enhance and extend the serviceability and structural life of the underground asset.”
SRP SPIRAL Manufactured out of the company’s factory in Sydney, SRP EXP is Aussie Trenchless’ close fit structural spiral relining solution, ideal for the rehabilitating sewer and stormwater assets. The fast and easy installation process of its profiles and results in a pipe within a pipe that offers an extended service life of more than 50 years. The system – available for pipeline assets from DN 150 to DN 1200 – is manufactured from PVC and is suitable for circular sewers and stormwater gravity pipelines. SRP EXP is designed to fit standard size access chambers and is ideal for tight spaces and areas with bad access. As the installation process is unaffected by running infiltration and does not need bypass pumping, it’s well suited to gravity water applications, particularly as it enhances the hydraulic characteristics of the rehabilitated asset. SRP EXP has been supplied as far away as South America, while closer to home, it has
been successfully used to rehabilitate critical infrastructure all over Australia.
PST Another product exclusive to Aussie Trenchless is Pipe Segment Technology (PST), a segmental pipe rehabilitation system specifically designed for traversable trunk sewers, stormwater culverts & maintenance holes. Pipe lining technologies have the capacity to substantially increase the service life of pipes, and this method is ideal for man entry pipeline rehabilitation for gravity sewer mains. Installation can take place in low flow conditions, and the technology has low capital costs and a small site footprint. PST lining panels are made of polypropylene material, providing a smooth surface with effective hydraulic performance capacities. Significantly, PST is semi-transparent, mitigating risk and removing guesswork during the completion of gap grouting works. PST panels are lightweight, easy to install, and ideal for positioning in tight locations, with the product suitable for all pipe types, including round, ovoid and box culverts. Segment pipe rehabilitation technologies are recommended for sewers with
complicated and nonstandard shapes. Lining segments reflect the shape of the host pipe and therefore can be both circular and non-circular. Lining of access chambers can also be achieved using PST segments. The ring stiffness of PST can be enhanced or altered by attaching circumferential bars, making the product suitable for installing in deep sewers. PST is a nimble segmental lining system with a grouted annulus gap, versatile in tight access locations. A static design is completed to verify conformance of the PST lining structure in these types of applications. The technology does not require advanced installation machinery and has been used to rehabilitate deteriorated stormwater and sewer culverts.
COMPLETE SOLUTION With the launch of a grouted spiral fixed diameter lining system for traversable conduits, a fold and form lining system for reticulation networks, coupled with the SRP Spiral and
Chris Meredith on Kembla Watertech’s stand at Trenchless Live 2012.
PST Segment technology and other ancillary techniques, Mr Meredith says in combination these trenchless rehabilitation products offer the contractors a total solution for any pipeline renewal projects. “Aussie Trenchless will continue to invest in innovation, to ensure a range of lining systems and products offered are available to all contractors,” he says. “Contractor support plays an important role in a two-way commitment on Australian products to ensure success in timely delivery at competitive rates.” Having seen significant changes during his involvement in the trenchless industry, Mr Meredith says he hopes the availability and proliferation of trenchless products doesn’t mean contractors and asset owners move away from quality solutions. “At the start of the millennium, the industry matured significantly with the entry of overseas organisations into the market,” he says. “These new players caused more competition in the rehabilitation sector, as they tried to achieve a market share. Some of these new players have come and gone, but the competitiveness remains. “Trenchless products have gotten cheaper over the years, but they’ve always been more expensive than the alternative – which is offset by their benefits. However, there’s a responsibility on all of us to ensure the industry is committed to prioritising innovation, quality and safety, over a price.” SRP EXP being used on a relining project in Cairns.
For more information visit www.aussietrenchless.com
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AUSTECK
Celebrating three decades of experience and expertise At the time Austeck, a burgeoning business supplying CCTV equipment for sewer inspection and condition assessment, was being setup in 1992, the trenchless industry in Australia was still in its relative infancy. Since then the company’s evolution to being a leader has coincided with the growth of the industry in Australia, with these products now imperative to the operation of critical infrastructure across the region.
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ince it was established almost 30 years ago, Austeck has established itself as one of the market leaders for pipeline maintenance and rehabilitation equipment, making it a crucial supplier of trenchless technology products to the Australian and New Zealand market. During this period, Austeck has built up a network of more than 1,000 partners in the public and private sector, including contractors, councils and water authorities, plumbing, petrochemical and mining companies. Not only has the company supplied these companies with leading technology for the maintenance and rehabilitation of their critical infrastructure, but it has also supported them with service and training – which is vital to maximising productivity and results.
UNIQUE RELATIONSHIPS This end to end capability, positions Austeck as one of the few local companies which has the experience and expertise to ensure the successful implementation of the technology into operations, and the backup service and support to guarantee the quality, security, and peace of mind for its clients. “Our relationships aren’t simple supplier/customer relationships, they’re partnerships,” says Austeck Managing Directory Tristan Day. “We try to deliver holistic turnkey solutions to our clients starting from the initial consultation where we guide them through the decisionmaking process as to what technology best suits their application. “Complete vehicle fit-outs follow, with comprehensive commissioning and training to ensure the smooth integration of the system into their routine, followed by ongoing service and support for the full life of the system.”
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
One of Austeck’s trucks, fitted out for CCTV operations.
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Since the day it was established, the company has been committed to the introduction and development of state-of-the-art technology for the Australasian market, which has lead to Austeck exclusively distributing leading brands
The Troglotech T815 crawler which Austeck recently introduced to Australia and New Zealand.
A view inside the first CCTV van Austeck fitted out in 2001 for Brisbane City Council which was the largest system of its kind in Australia att the time.
such as Rausch, Troglotech and Infosense. “Introducing innovative and disruptive technologies from all over the world into the region has always been part of Austeck’s mission,” says Mr Day. “It’s an essential element of our business model and imperative to maintaining relevance across the industries we serve. “The SL-RAT from Infosense is one such example that revolutionised the way workflows for sewer maintenance is approached by delivering accurate and reliable results in minutes as opposed to hours. Another is the Rausch Omicron which facilitates Full HD mainline inspections in a compact, portable and ergonomic configuration which is perfectly suited to Australasian conditions.” The most recent game changer introduced by Austeck is the Troglotech T815 crawler system, the first crawler of it’s kind equipped with an onboard battery. In isolation, this unique feature has the potential to change the way crawler systems are designed in the future. The absence of power in the cable makes for an inherently safer, simpler and more robust system and dramatically reduces the time, cost and complexity of the cable re-termination procedure. What was once the greatest contributor to operational downtime can now be completed in less than an hour by the operator in the field. Further to this, the cable only weighs 1.5 kg per 100 m yet has a 250 kg breaking strain, meaning the tiny crawler - DN 92 mm - can traverse up to 300 m in a single run with ease. In addition, with a pressure rating of 10 bar, the whole system, including the control centre, can operate submerged up to 100 m underwater. It can also be deployed in any weather conditions
Austeck’s first CCTV van which was fitted out in 2001.
and hosed down at the end of the day with no threat of damage to the internal electronics. The potential applications of this technology, from sewer to deep-sea, mining to petrochemical even search and rescue, is
vast and with early adopters like Sydney Water and BHP already running multiple systems it is sure gain traction quickly. “Austeck’s plan for the future is to grow and diversify by offering new and innovative solutions across a wide range of different industries,” says Mr Day. “We will also continue to enhance and develop our core competencies as industry experts in the trenchless space as this is what we have built our reputation upon and what our suppliers and clients depend on us for.” For more information visit www.austeck.com.
The control panel inside a CCTV truck from where the operations are managed and results are monitored.
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BOTHAR
Bothar, Building the World Beneath You Bothar is a specialist provider of engineering solutions delivering complex subsurface essential infrastructure projects globally for the provision of clean water, effluent transfer systems and essential energy.
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eriving from the Gaelic name bóthar, which means road, Bothar specialises in providing engineering solutions to solve complex subsurface construction challenges in most types of ground conditions. Managing Director and one of the founders Noel Kerr says Bothar has grown from its original two employees in the early 1990s to just under 1000 working globally across the business today. “At the time the company was predominantly working in Sydney and were outsourcing our subsurface crossings when the concept arose to do the work in house,” Kerr says. The company initially commenced operating with Bothar Built Auger Boring Machines executing various infrastructure crossings, and within a few years were also operating using Bothar Built Tunnel Boring Machines. The company built its first Tunnel Boring Machine around 1994 then this milestone was followed by Bothar completing its first major tunnelling project – the Black Street Lang Park drainage project, in Brisbane, Queensland. Within 10 years, Bothar had established several offices throughout Australia and had become one of Australia’s most skilled and diverse providers of tunnelling solutions. Leveraging its local expertise, Bothar launched its international operations and expanded into the Middle East in 2010 with offices in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait. It was during that year that the company commenced its first microtunnelling job in Abu Dhabi - 1.7km of 2000 mm diameter for installation of reinforced concrete jacking. Kerr says in 2011 Bothar was awarded its first project in Kuwait – 22km of various diameter (ranging from 400 mm to 1000 m) for a new sewerage system. The company further expanded its expertise internationally when it received an investment from an overseas company as part of a plan to further expand the Middle East presence into Qatar in June 2013. “We executed a number of major projects including the Hunua 4 project in New Zealand, a 506 metre flood relief tunnel in Brisbane, the Al Sowa major sea bed crossing in the UAE, and over 80 coal-seam gas export
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Noel Kerr’s father, Tom, standing in front of one of the first Bothar Built TBM (circa 1998).
Photograph capturing a full profile of the first Bothar Built TBM.
A typical Auger Bore machine in Sydney – circa 1990.(Original machine)
Atui (circa 2017) one Bothar’s Herrenknecht AVN 2000’s utilised on the KIPP project in Ghana. The project required 2.65km’s of 2000mm diameter microtunnelling activity with a seawater intake and out-take tunnel and up to 1200mm drive lengths including radial (curved) drives.
pipeline crossings for major CSG-to-LNG owners,” Kerr says. “During 2013 we also completed our first microtunnelling job in Doha, Qatar. Since then, Bothar has significantly accelerated its geographically-focused growth through strategic acquisitions and organic growth.” Going from strength to strength, Bothar hit another milestone by acquiring Coleman Tunnelling Africa (rebranded to Coleman Microtunnelling), through which it launched operations in South and Greater Africa. Kerr says the company’s presence internationally did not stop there, expanding into Singapore in 2017, followed by acquiring Innovative Pipeline Crossings (IPC, recently rebranded to Bothar Inc.) in Canada in 2018. “Here we started to form a beachhead for our planned expansion into North America,” he says. “Bothar now boasts a fleet of 74 specialist machines that provide engineering solutions on projects facilitating social benefits to millions all the while minimising any environmental impact.” Kerr says one of the key aspects to the company’s success is it offers a mix of its own equipment and supplied equipment. Bothar is believed to have the largest Herrenknecht microtunnelling fleet in the world. “Bothar’s end-to-end tunnelling solutions set it apart from its competitors in the market, further strengthened with the addition of Direct Pipe®, shaft construction and pipe manufacturing capabilities in the last three years,” he says. Being in an industry where they are always faced with operational challenges, Kerr says continuous increases in technology has boosted performance and safety overall. Bothar’s commitment to innovation is demonstrated through its investment in
research and development and the results that are achieved in the field with its in-house technology. A recent example being the Canopy Tube project on the Cross River Rail project in Brisbane, Queensland whereby Bothar’s expertise was tasked with the installation of 19 x 102m (DN500) canopy tubes for the Boggo Road tunnel. Bothar developed an innovative solution to install canopy tubes with pinpoint accuracy without the ability to install a retrieval shaft whilst ensuring the ground was fully supported at all times. Bothar designed a specialized bespoke bidirectional retractable cutting head which had never previously been
utilized on this size installation. The company’s Bothar Built fleet of tunnel boring machines are continually reviewed for potential performance improvement or to solve a particular client construction challenge. Kerr says the company has developed the enviable reputation of being a “can do” contractor renowned for the successful delivery of difficult projects whilst maintaining excellent operational performance. “These strengths coupled with some of the best personnel in the industry worldwide (from the first two employees 30 years ago to a workforce of just under1000) and an in-depth understanding of the unique challenges of each project have helped us to leverage our current status as a market leading, innovative multinational tunnelling contractor,” he says. For more information visit botharboring.com Black Street Lang Park Drainage Project tunnel exit in the Brisbane River (2011).
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EDGE UNDERGROUND
Edge Underground is a leader in the microtunnelling market.
Edge Underground: bringing innovation to microtunnelling Since it was established in 2010, Edge Underground has been at the forefront of the Australian microtunnelling industry, pushing its boundaries, improving equipment and finding ways to complete even the most challenging projects.
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dge Underground was founded by managing director Stuart Harrision – a well-known figure in the Australian and international microtunnelling industry as a trenchless pioneer and inventor of the AXIS laser guided boring system. “When I first developed the AXIS in the early
2000s, it was because there was a gap in the industry for equipment that could provide high efficiency, productivity and pinpoint precision. There were machines that offered one or two of these, but not all three,” Harrison says. “The AXIS is a versatile, pit-launched, laserguided machine that can install pipelines onEdge Underground worker onsite.
grade and with pinpoint accuracy to within +/5mm. I designed it so that the head and cutter style or configuration can be swapped out to deal with changing ground conditions, making it the most versatile machine on the market.” The AXIS is now a leading machine on the market. It is the most accurate, and it has been designed with a host of unique features, such as the ability to perform pilot lines and retract to reduce problems occurring from unexpected ground conditions. It also features safety elements including pressure gages and a falling object protective system (FOPS) safety enclosure.
DRIVING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT Since developing the AXIS, Harrison has continued to push the boundaries of its capabilities. He encourages his team to find ways to improve practices, products and design to make microtunnelling a competitive alternative to open-cut. This mindset has allowed Edge Underground to set benchmarks for the industry and take on some of the most challenging pipeline installations that other contractors have avoided. In mid-2019, the company set a new benchmark for pipeline installation when it was subcontracted to install 180 m of pipe, comprising five separate lines
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of pipe on grade in six days. Edge Underground used a sewer max pipe – a pipe type that is not conventionally known for use in pipe jacking. However, as the ground was very stable, the team knew it would be able to install it without any structural damage, save the project a substantial amount in funds. Harrison recalls that in another project, Edge Underground completed a high-risk project no other contractor wanted to take on. A pipeline needed to be installed 12-14 m deep and the project posed a high chance of wedging occurring due to ground conditions – a combination of extreme hard rock with seams of clay and fractures. Using the AXIS’ unique retract feature, the team performed a pilot line to inspect and confirm ground conditions in order to configure the reaming tool to best suit conditions for pipe jacking, allowing the project to be completed successfully. “These are just a couple of examples of what we’ve been able to achieve with innovation and looking at how we can achieve better outcomes on more projects,” Harrison says. “The exciting thing is there is still a lot of scope for evolution in the microtunnelling industry and I look forward to what advancements we can achieve next.” Pipeline installation using the AXIS.
For more information go to www.edgeunderground.co
AXIS laser guided boring system performing a pilot line.
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HDI LUCAS
Drilling towards the future As Australia’s leading horizontal directional drilling (HDD) company providing services to the oil and gas, energy, and utilities sectors in Australia and Asia Pacific, HDI Lucas has pioneered HDD in Australia.
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or over 30 years, HDI Lucas has been drilling horizontally in Australia, starting with the first landfall using directional drilling in Victoria for the Bass Strait project in 1987. HDI (Horizontal Drilling International) was established in 1984, and is an internationally recognised HDD and direct pipe contractor, headquartered in France with divisions in Brazil, Mexico and Australia. The business structure as it is today was formed when Lucas Engineering and Construction (Lucas) was acquired in 2018 by Spiecapag. Lucas was the foundation HDD contractor in the region, having also completed its first HDD crossing in the 1980’s. The company remains at the vanguard of HDD projects across our region, completing projects in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, New Caledonia, New Zealand and every state and territory of Australia. HDI Lucas General Manager John StuartRobertson says the company has led the way for the HDD industry regionally. “This is one of the highlights of my nearly 30 years in the industry. We have always valued the long-term relationships we hold with our partners and clients, something which fits right in with the longevity that we all see in the people in this industry,” he says. HDI Lucas’ projects have extended the limits of what can be achieved with HDD, such as drilling the first HDD over 2km in length when crossing the Tamar River in Tasmania in 2002. That was
quickly followed by several record-breaking projects, including Australia’s longest completed HDD crossing at more than 2.4km in New South Wales, and the world’s largest HDD project in offshore Western Australia, with the installation of 9 landfall HDDs up to DN800. While HDI Lucas’ projects tend to be mainly horizontal, not all are about drilling underneath obstacles: the company has also completed several high-angle horizontal bores for drainage, telecoms installs and other essential utilities.
CLIENT-FOCUSED AND COOPERATIVE CONTRACTING Relationships continue to be a major focus for HDI Lucas: former clients are rarely left in the past. In 2021, as in any given year, HDI Lucas’ portfolio of projects comprises more than 50 per cent return clients. The company’s biggest projects in 2021 stretch across multiple locations in Papua New Guinea, New South Wales, Northern Territory and Western Australia. Always looking to operate as the principal contractor, HDI Lucas is part of the supply chain to clients who need deep technical experience to deal with complex conditions, and who invariably know whom to (re)turn to. One recent project is when a major Australian pipeline infrastructure owner contracted HDI Lucas to confirm the feasibility of, and then execute, the construction of a crossing through 200 mpa+ rock, with compound curves, over a 1,300m+ drill length in an environmentally and
socially constrained work site with minimal radius for installation. The company’s ability to execute projects of this technical complexity is driven by the desire to protect natural habitat and limit impact on human and animal populations. Mr Stuart-Robertson notes that HDD has become a must have in some projects, where project owners and main contractors identify HDD as the solution early in their design phase, and engage the company to provide specialised trenchless engineering and construction. “On another recent project, our project delivery partner had options to construct the pipeline across a harbour without using HDD, but marine trenching was not the preferred option, as it meant potentially a much longer path around the harbour and a lot more impact on the community and environment,” he says. “By using HDD, the pipeline was able to take a much more direct and optimal path, passing directly underneath the harbour and coastal creek area, avoiding excessive disruption to culturally sensitive or highly populated areas and a key transport waterway.”
MODERN, ADAPTABLE, AND COMPLEMENTARY EQUIPMENT Drawing on region-leading capacity across our group, HDI Lucas has a fleet of rigs offering pulling capacity ranging from 35 to 400 tonnes. Innovation plays a big role in the plant yard, with equipment from leading European and
HDI Lucas General Manager John StuartRobertson says the company has led the way for the HDD industry regionally.
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HDI Lucas has been drilling horizontalling in Australia for over 30 years.
American manufacturers, customised for optimal performance. This includes operational and safety improvements engineered in-house. The result is a fleet that allows for the trenchless installation of everything from small pipes over short distances, to large pipes of up to DN1400 more than 2km in length.
EXPERIENCED AND CAPABLE PEOPLE & SYSTEMS One thing that doesn’t change is the need for good people: the industry and its individual companies stay in business not just because they have the best equipment, but also because they have the best people. The industry as a whole is hugely indebted to its pool of HDD professionals, and ensuring that each and every person goes home safe at the end of the day is – simply – a requirement to
Drilling rig in New Zealand.
stay in business. Like in many other parts of the construction industry, this has been a big focus of evolution over the years in the HDD industry. Mr Stuart-Robertson says attributing this as a big part of the culture that supports reliable project delivery: it is key to meeting HDI Lucas’ promises to clients and staff. “Our quality and safety systems have been proven time and time again as we tackle some of the most challenging horizontal drilling projects in the region, and those systems are regularly reviewed to ensure we learn and stay ahead of the curve,” he says. With its people and plant, and thanks to decades of experience in scores of projects around the world, HDI Lucas continues to explore and extend the capabilities of HDD to ensure projects can benefit from safe and reliable pipeline construction in environments that
are more complex than most. HDD projects are about improving outcomes, enabling essential infrastructure to be built in sustainable ways. “But the real benefits of the project will be felt in the future. Communities will benefit directly from additional infrastructure capacity, and the strain will also be taken off existing plant, optimising its lifespan and minimising the need for works in surrounding areas,” says one client project manager. Mr Stuart-Robertson’s vision for HDI Lucas is clear. “Buoyed by the strength of our parent company, Spiecapag and HDI, which are part of the Paris stock exchange-listed Vinci Group, we are here for our clients,” he says. “Our job is to find technically innovative, safe and reliable solutions to make essential infrastructure work, sustainably.”
HDI Lucas on site at Tangguh. Indonesia.
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HYNDS Hynds Pokeno Manufacturing Plant.
An industry old hand Hynds Pipe Systems has partnered with New Zealand’s civil and rural infrastructure for nearly half a century.
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ohn Hynds started his first concrete manufacturing business at the back of his first home in 1973, making crib blocks for retaining walls. Together with his wife Leonie, the pair progressively built up their manufacturing capabilities, going on to open their first distribution branch in 1994. Today, Hynds is a 33 branch network, serving both the civil and rural infrastructure markets throughout New Zealand. There are now six Hynds manufacturing facilities, supplying the network with a fleet of more than 70 trucks. Back in 1995, Hygrade Castings was formed to design and import cast-iron stormwater grates and manhole castings or cast-ware. Now, along with a sister company in Australia, the two Hygrade water businesses hold many exclusive world leading agencies. To complement concrete products, Hynds entered into the polypropylene and polyethylene pipe manufacturing markets in 2005. Hynds’ Waters and Farr business now has two manufacturing, plants and distribution centres in the North and South Island. The company recently built a stateof-the-art facility on a 26 hectare site in Pōkeno, where Hynds now has the most 110 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
technologically advanced precast concrete manufacturing facility in the world. Hynds has partnered with infrastructure bodies in New Zealand for 48 years, providing concrete and other products for everything from the Auckland Sky Tower legs through to the current Transmission Gully project in Wellington. Today, Hynds Group has over 900 employees across Australasia, totalling nine business entities. Hynds’ focus on trenchless technologies has helped the company to develop innovative solutions to supply many major projects in New Zealand. Currently, Hynds is involved in the supply of a high performance jointed precast concrete jacking pipe to the Central Interceptor Project in Auckland – the largest infrastructure project in New Zealand history. Here are some of the company’s major highlights of the last 30 years. 1993: Trenchless technology was starting to emerge and pipe thrusting was increasingly becoming the preferred method of culvert installation. Hynds designed a pipe and jointing system to take 600 tonnes of thrustforce, manufacturing 58 specially designed jacking pipes for the Albany Trunk Sewer of Auckland’s North Shore.
1996: Hynds further developed joint types that allowed specific in-line or deflected jacking load ratings while offering a sealed or unsealed joint configuration. After major flooding incidents in New Plymouth, Hynds supplied jacking pipe for to two flood protection schemes: 150 metres of 1200 mm Ø for Pukekura Park and 170 m of 2000 mm Hynds jacking pipe supplied and laid for flood prevention in the Lower Mangaotuku Stream. 1997-1998: Hynds designed a range of small diameter microtunnelling pipes able to fit within a 3200 mm internal diameter caisson manhole. The pipe diameters from DN300-DN900 at 2 m length were able to fit inside the manhole along with the microtunnelling machine. This allowed a very small footprint in road berms to minimise above-ground disturbance. 2001-2003: Hynds designed and supplied 3050 mm Ø in-wall joint jacking pipes for Auckland City Council as part of the Motions Creek Sewer Separation project. 2004: Hynds designed and manufactured 400 No. 2100 mm Ø in-wall joint jacking pipe incorporating Ameron T-Lock PVC liner for the North Shore Wastewater Network upgrade in
Hynds Pokeno Manufacturing Plant.
Browns Bay. This design was developed as an alternative option to the tendered design. 2005: Hynds acquired 50 per cent of Waters and Farr, producing PE Solid Wall pipe used in trenchless technology construction projects. It would go on to acquire 100 per cent ownership in 2011. 2012: Hynds designed and manufactured 400 m x 1950 mm Ø in-wall joint jacking pipe designed for installation with a 380 m radius curve.
2014-2015: Hynds completed the first jacking pipe job with cast-in HDPE lining, designed and developed for the Panmure Rising Main Project. 2014: Hynds supplied 1,042 m pipe for the Hingaia Peninsula Gravity Trunk Sewer – one of the longest HDD installations completed in NZ. 2017: Hynds manufactured and supplied 1950 mm Ø CL 6 in-wall joint
jacking pipe incorporating shear links around the full 360° perimeter for a replacement stormwater pipeline under Albert Street for City Rail Link Project. This special design was required to account for loads arising from future excavations adjacent to the stormwater pipeline. 2019-2020: Hynds manufactured and supplied 3000 m of 2550 mm Ø in-wall joint concrete jacking pipes for the Hunua 4 Watermain project with McConnell Dowell, setting two world records of over 1300 m drives through basalt rock. 2020: Hynds introduces the ‘Perfect Pipe’ range of drainage and jacking pipes, incorporate an integrated plastic lining and interior pressure coupler. No on-site plastic lining welding is required and entry into the pipe is not needed for joint sealing, making it the best choice in durability, strength, and construction safety.
First pipe being lowered for installation by micro-tunnel boring machine Domenica.
2021: In collaboration with a specialist consultant, Hynds designed and developed a high-performance joint system capable of withstanding a 7.2 bar external pressure for 2100 and 2400 mm Ø HDPE lined precast concrete jacking pipe for the Watercare Central Interceptor Project in Auckland. For more information go to www.hynds.co.nz
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INTERFLOW
Celebrating 85 years of innovation with Interflow Leading pipeline infrastructure company, Interflow, recently celebrated its 85th year of uplifting communities through the provision of world-class water and wastewater services. Throughout November 2021, its people paused to reflect on their journey that has been characterised by innovation, agility, and a steadfast dedication to solving customers’ problems.
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nterflow is Australia and New Zealand’s leading provider of trenchless pipeline infrastructure solutions. Throughout its vibrant history, the organisation has pioneered technologies and renewal methods that have received national and international recognition for their industryleading status. Innovation lies at the core of Interflow’s service offering. From proactive asset management to emergency repairs, the company is dedicated to developing bespoke solutions that penetrate to the heart of its customers’ needs: robust, sustainable pipeline infrastructure that will service the growing needs of the community for generations to come. This is something that has been characteristic of the organisation since its establishment. From day one, the organisation’s founder, Harold ‘Bill’ Weaver, was committed to ‘challenging the status quo’. In 1936, Bill set out on a mission to support the growth of budding communities along the east coast of Australia through the construction
Interflow celebrates 85 years’ of business in the trenchless industry.
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Interflow’s Managing Director Geoff Weaver.
of water, sewerage and drainage systems for developing towns. As a result of Bill’s ability to identify gaps in the market and develop services to meet the needs of his customers, the company was able to expand its operations across the country.
A GENERATION-LED, FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS Over the years, the leadership of Interflow has been handed down from father to son, for four generations. The organisation’s current Managing Director, Geoff Weaver, has been responsible for expanding Interflow’s operations across Australia, establishing international operations in New Zealand, negotiating two twenty-year exclusive Australasian licenses for spirally wound rehabilitation products with long-standing partner, Sekisui Rib Loc Australia, and has taken a leading role in the development of trenchless technology. Today, at 85-years young, Interflow has become Australia’s largest provider of trenchless pipeline solutions, earning the enviable track record of being the preferred delivery partner within its market. Geoff shares how the company’s ongoing success has been guided by the steadfast core values laid out by his grandfather. “My grandfather’s ethos was simple. He was committed to challenging the status quo and finding new and better ways to do things,” he said. “He strove to ensure that every action taken by the company, both in the way it treated its people and customers, reflected the core values of Honesty, Reliability, Competence and Respect.”
Interflow hard at work during the 1990s.
Geoff says that in addition to these core values, Interflow’s success should be attributed to the commitment and dedication of its people. “Interflow’s innovation has always been spurred by two simple questions: What do our customers need, and can we challenge ourselves to do better?” Geoff shares how this passion led to the development of many world-class technologies that changed the civil engineering landscape forever. “As early as the 1990s, we pioneered the use of trenchless technology to improve project efficiency, reduce costs and minimise any impact to the environment and community,” he said. “Each generation of leadership has been responsible for refining these methods and developing new technologies to further improve the experience of our customers and communities.”
to resolve all our customers’ problems, throughout the entire lifecycle of their water, wastewater, stormwater and culvert assets,” he said. “We remain steadfastly committed to investing in our people and providing them with the right tools and support to grow with our business.” Although Interflow’s vision and strategy have evolved over the years to accommodate the growth of their workforce and advancements in technology, the core foundation
has remained the same. Understanding the significance of Interflow’s rich 85-year history, Geoff reflects on what the future may have in store. “One thing is for sure: we will continue to grow, innovate, and challenge ourselves to be our best every day,” he said. “As we celebrate this incredible milestone, we look forward to the next 85 years of supporting our customers and uplifting communities with pipeline infrastructure solutions for generations to come.”
A SIMPLE VISION, AN IMPORTANT MISSION Starting as a humble business and steadily growing to a workforce of approximately 600 employees across all of Australia and New Zealand, the company continues to expand the range of services offered to its customers. Geoff highlights the company’s desire to be the first point of contact for its customers’ pipeline infrastructure projects. “Our crews are well trained and equipped
Interflow has become Australia’s largest provider of trenchless pipeline solutions.
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IPLEX
Iplex leads innovation to overcome ageing infrastructure challenges With 83 years’ experience, Iplex has an excellent understanding of the challenges the water industry faces. Iplex’s experienced and knowledgeable team actively works and collaborates with customers and the industry to provide safe, secure and innovative water solutions today and into the future.
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plex has broad and proven capabilities and are driven by what is important – customer and community needs. The company provides strong and effective products and solutions to water authorities, rural and urban agriculture, residential, urban subdivision, civil and mining infrastructure markets across Australia.
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AGEING INFRASTRUCTURE CHALLENGE The water industry is facing a number of future challenges, including the significant issue of ageing infrastructure alongside the evergrowing demand for water across the country. Due to the age of the infrastructure, the failure rate of existing water and sewer networks is
expected to considerably increase over the next two decades, and the need for innovative solutions has never been more important. Asset owners face the challenge of cost effectively repairing, rehabilitating or replacing existing pipelines while limiting the impact of disruption to their customers and communities.
Restrain PVC-U Sewer Pipe - weld free joint allows for simple installation.
Iplex works closely with customers to provide the most effective solutions to meet their specific needs. With proven experience, product leadership and technical expertise, Iplex is well placed to help solve the ageing infrastructure situation. Callum Hickey, National Innovation Manager says that Iplex has a long history of leading through innovation. “We are working closely with a number of asset owners, contractors and consultants to help solve their ageing infrastructure challenges through innovative solutions,” he says. Trenchless will play a key role in effectively addressing the infrastructure cliff. Costeffective and less disruptive, Iplex has a suite of products to cover the broad spectrum of rehabilitation, repair and replacement of underground infrastructure, including GRP Jacking Pipe, POLIplex PE Pipe and Restrain PVC-U Pipe.
Product Manager Andrew Omer-Cooper says Restrain PVC-U gravity sewer pipe is designed specifically for gravity sewer applications utilising trenchless techniques. “Restrain is a rubber ring jointed PVC-U pipe with a threaded spigot and socket providing positive axial restraint for immediate installation,” he says. “Restrain is a weld-free threaded pipe that gets the job done in a fast and safe manner, with minimal impact to the environment.” Omer-Cooper says Iplex introduced GRP Jacking Pipes into the market in 1987, with a comprehensive range of sizes up to DN2200, and specially tailored fittings. “Our local technical support and design teams can help with customised sizes for complex and demanding trenchless projects,” he says. Iplex has invested scientifically in local manufacturing capability to produce thickwalled large diameter POLIplex PE pipe, well
suited to the rigorous demands of trenchless applications, along with the expertise to customise based on customer needs. Iplex has a national scale, local resourcing and technical expertise to partner with customers across all stages of their planning, design and project implementation. Head of Sales Shaun O’Brien says the company’s sales engineers and sales representatives across the country are able to help with a trenchless project from end-to-end. “With unrivalled technical support, product knowledge and implementation, our teams ensures reliability with project delivery,” he says. “We work closely with our clients to give them the best possible solutions whether it be Polyethelene, PVC or GRP materials.” For more information about Iplex’s Trenchless offering, visit www.iplex.com.au/trenchless or call its sales team on 13 10 86. ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 115
KILLARD GROUP
Insituform Pacific: The international standard for rehabilitating and strengthening piping systems Two years on from being acquired, Insituform Pacific remains the leader in affordable, reliable, and non-disruptive solutions of choice for pipe rehabilitation and reconstruction in Australia.
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illard Infrastructure is a multi-functional civil construction company that has gained an outstanding reputation in the water utility industry. With over twenty years’ experience working with sewer, water and storm water pipelines, Killard has delivered a vast range of successful projects on time and within budget to many satisfied clients throughout New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. Established in 1999 by Jerry Daly, Killard Infrastructure has offered pipe renewal
Insituform truck on Portland location.
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services by conventional trenching since its inception. In January 2020, Killard acquired all shares in Insituform Pacific from Aegion - a worldwide multinational company specialising in the protection and rehabilitation of infrastructure utilising trenchless technology. The Insituform name is synonymous with trenchless rehabilitation, known for its cured-in place pipe (CIPP) and other technologies globally. Since its establishment in 1971, Insituform has been providing costeffective solutions to remediate operational,
health, regulatory and environmental problems resulting from aging and defective pipeline infrastructure. For 50 years Insituform has been instrumental in the creation of products, standards and processes that define the trenchless industry today. With an installed base of over 40,000 kilometres of CIPP worldwide, Insituform continues to offer cost-effective rehabilitation, engineering, and design for a wide range of industries and clients around Australia.
“We have access to all Aegion products and the newest technologies that are used worldwide.”
Rehabilitating 800m of the sewage line in Portland, Victoria for Wannon Water.
The industry has responded well to Aegion’s patented technology. “We are not reinventing the wheel: we have tried and tested products that are well developed and widely used,” says Jerry Daly, Managing Director for Killard Group. “We have access to all Aegion products and the newest technologies that are used worldwide.” Killard is the exclusive distributor for Aegion
Insituform crew installing 1350 mm x 248 m of stormwater liner for City of Yarra, Victoria.’
products, so as newer technologies are created in the United States and England, Insituform’s inventory of renewal options for stormwater, sewer and water infrastructure is continually expanding. Together, Killard Infrastructure and Insituform can provide a full service, one-stop-shop offering end-to-end assistance. The combined entities
offers a holistic solution for clients covering civil and non-destructive asset replacement. With over 200 personnel delivering work across Australia, and offices in Queensland, Victoria and four in New South Wales, size ensures a responsive and cost-efficient solution available in all regions of Australia. Working on live infrastructure, Insituform is no stranger to a good challenge. One of the greatest difficulties of late has been in relation to logistics and material shortages during the pandemic. “Transportation of material has been impacted; however, we are taking an active role to ensure we maintain high levels of performance,” says Simon Davis, General Manager Killard Infrastructure and Insituform. “To date, it hasn’t affected our clients – our work is getting done with minimal impacts and disruption.” Killard Infrastructure and Insituform share an ambition to ensure all utility owners have cost-effective solutions for renewing ageing infrastructure. For more information go to www.killardinfrastructure.com.au
Killard worker on Ipad completes condition assessment.
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KRE
KRE’s 300 mm – 600 mm Robotic Cutter.
A global robotic solutions favourite KRE’s services and product range has earnt the company global popularity within the pipeline rehabilitation industry.
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Grout truck control console circa 1998.
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RE Engineering Services has been manufacturing robotic equipment for over 30 years. Keith Edmunds started the company in 1990, incorporating the business soon after in 1991. At that time, Edmunds was struck by the lack of reliable equipment overseas. The industry was still in its infancy when he decided he would manufacture his own equipment to cater for the evolving Australian trenchless scene. KRE produces reliable robotic equipment combined with clear imaging to perform vital robotic repairs in pipelines. Rehabilitation and lateral reinstatement through robotic equipment eliminates the need to dig up surfaces, making KRE’s inventions critical to trenchless solutions. Through research, product development, and close working relationships with contractors and partners, KRE has been able to evolve and adapt its service offerings to meet the advancing needs of the market. KRE’s range is used in a variety of trenchless applications. Services include but are not limited to: CCTV inspection and highpressure cleaning for pipes, robotic repair and reinstatement of laterals, and internal pipeline repair. Edmunds and his team have rubbed shoulders with many of Australia’s trenchless industry leaders over the decades, like Interflow’s Geoff Weaver and Abergeldie’s Matthew Boyle, to name a few. KRE
KRE’s robust Robotic Cutter.
products have been and still are regularly used by industry giants Interflow, Abergeldie Watertech (formerly Kembla Watertech), Insituform as well as PMA (Formerly IC Pipes) and M. Tucker & Sons. The world caught wind of KRE’s innovations, and now the Australian-made products have been picked up by overseas suppliers in Germany and North America. In 2020, CUES began manufacturing and selling KRE’s selfdriving robotic equipment to enhance its skid mounted robotics that KRE designed some 28 years ago. CUES is the world’s leading manufacturer of water, wastewater and stormwater inspection equipment. This is a testament to the design and development of KRE’s products for the global market. KRE was also the first company in Australia to exhibit and supply WinCan – a specialist sewer inspection and asset management software solution that has now become an industry staple. Edmunds enjoys problem-solving and creating new solutions for every client’s projects. The company’s goal is to deliver cost effective and practical solutions that are intuitive to use. Edmunds and the team design equipment so it can be easily repaired out in the field. All equipment is modular and interchangeable, to save the contractor downtime on projects.
Keith Edmunds working on Robotic Cutter.
Keith Edmunds and the founder of WinCan in 1994.
“We pride ourselves on working closely with our customers and their operators, enabling us to develop and produce products to suit market requirements,” Edmunds says. Over the years, KRE has assisted in a number of major projects. In 1993, KRE worked with Curtin University, Perth, with a robotic solution to hold explosive charges and measuring equipment for seismic surveys. In 1998, the company helped on a Marconi, EPROS combined project, KRE supplying the robotics for laying fibreoptic cables in sewers, taking the fibre from the main to the consumer.
That same year, KRE also supplied the majority of robotic equipment on the Singapore deep sewer project. In 2016, the company aided Imatech with a 500 m camera and laser measurement system, for pipes from 75 mm to 225 mm for the purpose of analysing ceramic wear coatings and determining the lifespan of their specific pipes. Currently, KRE is investing in research and development for its core product range – its robotic lateral cutters – which range from 150 mm to 1200 mm. The team is designing and trialling new technology in robotic machines for potable water pipes ranging from 75 mm to 225 mm. KRE’s work doesn’t stop there: the company is also developing a new micro-cutter to cater for the domestic plumbing market. The company is excited to be working with new and upcoming contractors and partners, expanding its customer base and creating new opportunities to create solutions for now and into future for our unique and ever evolving trenchless industry here in Australasia. For more information go to www.kre.com.au ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 119
KWIK-ZIP
Kwik-ZIP HD-50 spacers on DN560 HDPE (560mm OD) into a DN700 mild steel pipe.
Kwik-ZIP’s thermoplastic spacers and centralisers Kwik-ZIP is a family-owned and operated business started by father-and-son duo Brian and Jason Linaker. Before the conception of the company, the duo had a vision to develop a concept for a non-corrosive plastic bow spring centraliser they could use within their water well drilling business.
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y 2000, the pair had finalised the design for the 380 Series water well centraliser and commenced offering the product to others within the water well industry. Historically, all alternative solutions available consisted of wood or metal and had many disadvantages during application. Kwik-ZIP products are manufactured from high-grade thermoplastics, which meet industry standards. Established in 2001, the company has since engaged in the design and manufacture of non-metallic centralisers and spacer systems
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for a wide range of industries including the trenchless, pipeline, resources and civil construction industries. Headquartered in Bunbury, Western Australia, Kwik-ZIP now markets its products both domestically and internationally, owning the patents and intellectual property. Cofounder Jason Linaker is still the company’s managing director today. Kwik-ZIP centraliser and spacer systems have been developed to solve supporting, grading and centralisation challenges in the trenchless,
HDD, pipeline, vertical production drilling and ground engineering industries. Using thermoplastic has a number of significant advantages such as corrosion protection, low co-efficient of friction, flexibility in sizing and reduced insertion forces. Fabricated metallic spacers are subject to corrosion and can cause damage to the pipeline. Kwik-ZIP spacers and centralisers have no metal parts, which assists in overcoming some of the corrosion issues associated with traditional products.
Products are made from Kwik-ZIP’s engineered thermoplastic blend that has a low co-efficient of friction, which allows for quick and easy insertion inside the carrier pipe. Kwik-ZIP spacers and centralisers are a segmented design, meaning that the same spacers and centralisers can be used for varying pipe diameters by the addition of more segments, adding an supplementary layer of flexibility. Finally, the reduced insertion forces allow for greater run lengths as well as the use of lower insertion forced during installation in trenchless projects. The use of lower insertion forces in particular allows contractors to reduce the size of machine required to complete an installation, saving money, energy and space at the job site. While the company’s initial focus resided in solving production casing centralisation challenges in vertical drilling applications, the Kwik-ZIP range has grown into a multi-industry series of innovative models that handle bar and pipe diameters from 18 mm to 1600 mm and above. Manufactured from Kwik-ZIP’s engineered thermoplastic blend, all products are specified, used and recommended by pipeline and civil contractors, water and gas utilities, drilling companies and engineering firms across the world. Kwik-ZIP products are suitable for use on steel, DICL, MSCL, GRE, PVC, HDPE and other pipe material and are a completely nonmetallic solution. General manager Paul Jeffreys says Kwik-ZIP centralisers and spacers are available in six
Kwik-ZIP 103s installed on DN1200mm PE water pipeline for a project in New Zealand.
kwik-ZIP 155 HT-E spacers used as a stand-off for Denso Australia’s SeaShield Pile Jacket System.
specific product series: HDXT, HDX, HD, GT, 380, and 155 all with varying models within each series. These are widely used in the water-well, trenchless, pipeline, mining, oil and gas, civil engineering and construction sectors. “Each is more applicable to specific business sector, ensuring solutions can be found by end users,” says Jeffreys. The products are certified against Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) product specifications and certified by the Australian Water Quality Centre (AWQC) for use in contact with drinking water. They are also approved for
use within many utilities’ infrastructure including Melbourne Retail Water Association, South East Queensland’s Infrastructure and Materials (IPAM) list, Sydney Water and the WA Water Corporation. Kwik-ZIP is also a member of the Australian Water Association, Water Industries Operators of Australia, American Water Works Association, US National Ground Water Association and the ASTT. The company maintains a focus on price effectiveness, simplicity and rapid on-site assembly, to ensure that their systems deliver significant cost, time and operational advantages to their customers. Ensuring the product is simple to install and cost-effective is a key cornerstone to the company’s offering. Kwik-ZIP also now has five strategically-located international warehouse facilities, which ensure short lead times for delivery and lower freight costs for consumers. “We are regularly told that as well as a technically superior product, our short lead times are another one of the key reasons customers support our business,” says Jeffreys. Jeffreys says significant time and effort has been invested in the development of the current range of products. This ethos informs the base of future development, backed by a range of Australian and international patents. The business has a proven track record serving a wide range of markets in diverse geographical locations including United States of America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East, the United Kingdom and Europe. Kwik-ZIP’s expertise, customer service, cost-effectiveness, innovative range of products and applicability across multiple industries continues to satisfy customers the world over. For more information go to www.kwikzip.com ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 121
MARCH CATO March Cato’s Herrenknecht EPB2000AB – M277M, an earth pressure balance (EPB) tunnel boring machine being lifted for Piritahi’s Tonar Street project in Auckland.
25 years tunnelling Auckland City March Cato is an award-winning Auckland-based civil engineering construction company. Founded in 1997 by Richard March and Adam Cato, it has quickly developed a reputation for taking on some of the most challenging and complex infrastructure projects.
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o-founders Richard March and Adam Cato first started working together at the Auckland branch of March Construction. When the opportunity presented itself, Richard and Adam joined forces to buy the Auckland operations and establish their own company, March Cato Ltd, which began trading in 1997. Specialising in trenchless and deep open cut pipeline construction for the 3 waters sector, March Cato have established themselves as a trusted construction partner, delivering innovative, technical solutions with a down-to-earth and practical attitude. In the late 90s, March Cato predominantly worked on stormwater and wastewater pipes for Metrowater and Auckland Council. “During the early 2000s we completed a lot of wastewater separations projects for the city,” says co-founder and director Adam Cato. “A large part of Auckland City is still on the combined stormwater and wastewater network, so we did a lot of work separating that out. The projects typically involved installing smaller diameter pipes, using a mixture of open-cut and
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trenchless methodologies.” Between 2010 and 2015, the company began branching out into manual, pipejacking as well as working on major tunnel refurbishments. “In the 60s in Auckland there were a lot of hand excavated tunnels or timber headings,” Cato explains. “They would put wastewater tunnels through sandstone, which eventually reached the end of their design life. Using old school tunnelling techniques, steel sets and timber laths, we would replace the pipes by hand.” Around 2015, March Cato took on a project for Watercare as a subcontractor for John Holland and Fulton Hogan. The Hunua 4 Water Main Project was designed to increase the security of the potable water supply for Auckland and to cater for the expected increase in demand over the next 50 years. “It was a pipeline that spanned the whole of Auckland,” says Cato. “Up until that point, the biggest project we ever delivered was $8 million, whereas this project was $60 million. Inevitably there was a lot of changes and growth within
the company at this time, because we had to deliver that job, yet not drop the ball with our existing clients.” Cato explained that the company had to employ a lot more people and scale up the business in order to deliver larger infrastructure projects. March Cato Ltd now employs around 120 people and delivers infrastructure projects right across the greater Auckland region In 2016, the New Zealand Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations Regulations were introduced, which had a significant and positive impact on the tunnelling industry in New Zealand. An increased focus was placed on the training and competency of key, safety critical staff, as well as providing clearer, higher standards for ventilation and the management of tunnelling risks. Ultimately this promoted the use of specialist tunnel boring machines (TBMs) over the older hand jacking techniques. As a result, the company have invested heavily in the appropriate plant and machinery and now has a number of Herrenknecht TBMs in its fleet. March and Cato have also recently purchased
a pilot auger bore machine to cover the range from DN300 up to DN1000 and as a result, the company can now cover the whole range of pipe sizes, right up to 3m diameter. “We’ve always taken a very considered and strategic approach to the trenchless sector. It’s a very capital-intensive industry to get into, so you can’t afford to get it wrong. We knew we had the core technical capability within the organisation, so it was a case of targeting the right opportunities and then backing ourselves to deliver.” As for any company, Cato says that some of its biggest challenges is finding quality people. “We work in a labour-intensive industry, so finding the right number of the right people, with the right skills is always tough in a competitive market.” Delivering these works consistently and safely is of utmost importance to Cato. “We put our people to work in some pretty high-risk environments, where the consequences of getting things wrong are unthinkable, so we have to make sure we’re investing in effective training, to upskill our people, so we can be confident we can deliver the work safely is really important and a massive challenge. “But it’s something we pride ourselves in: we do a lot of very challenging, technical, complex work that requires competent people. And we’re fortunate to have attracted a great pool of people. We’ve got some smart, practical engineers as well as some wily, innovative supervisors and a highly skilled and experienced workforce who
March Cato site workers secure TBM.
deliver the work. It’s a great mix.” In terms of the company’s future growth, Cato says, “It’s all about delivering a quality product, and bigger isn’t necessarily better. Where we end up is dependent on the opportunities out there and the market. If the market dictates that we continue to deliver at the size we are, then that’s fine. Growth may come, but it’s not really something we necessarily push for.” For more information go to www.marchcato.co.nz Herrenknecht EPB2000AB – M277M, an earth pressure balance (EPB) tunnel boring machine being lowered into the shaft for Piritahi’s Tonar Street project in Auckland.
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MAXIBOR
Australia’s leading HDD specialist Horizontal directional drilling has been in the blood of Maxibor’s founder and owner Rodney O’Meley, spanning over four decades. From first sight of an unusual looking machine in a Forresters Beach paddock in 1996, O’Meley became enthralled by the capabilities of trenchless technology. Today, Maxibor is one of the leading HDD design and delivery providers across Australia.
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n years between his first drill sighting in 1996 and the establishment of Maxibor in 2013, Rodney O’Meley dedicated himself to building up knowledge of horizontal directional drilling (HDD). Today, he is recognised as one of the experts in the HDD industry.
“Anyone can be trained to operate a drill, but few know what the drill and mud is telling you,” says O’Meley. “It is experience that will tell you what pressures to apply at the drill head and the right tooling and mud ingredients to achieve goods rates of penetration. Though the new technology
helps, it is still the practical experience which will help you avoid the frac outs or manage them when they are inevitable”. Several of the people with whom O’Meley worked in those formative learning years are still in the Maxibor team today. Sharing of the knowledge across the team for over
Swansea Channel 2017.
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25 years has built up a base of skilled drillers and a crew who are now delivering some of the most significant pipeline projects in Australia. Maxibor was established in 2013 at Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley. The company acquired some of its early work from the Hunter Expressway build. The business has always taken a strategic approach, focusing on projects for its larger rigs, investing in business development activities and using the knowledge of its experienced staff. Like many other HDD companies, Maxibor played its part in the installation of the NBN between 2017 and 2020. Maxibor installed close to 2,500 km of pipelines for fibre optic cable subcontracting to Visionstream, Lendlease, Downer and others. A highlight of Maxibor’s work on the NBN was the completion of two recordbreaking 500 m bores using its Vermeer 36x50 Series II rigs at the New South Wales north coast village of Scotts Head in October 2017. With the standard rod carrying capacity for a Vermeer 36x50 being less than 200 m, few HDD providers are willing or able to drill beyond this distance. Maxibor’s appetite for challenge, combined with its drill operation and drill fluid management expertise, overcame the combined challenges of distance, hard rock, cobblestone and water charged sand. In 2019, Maxibor added a Vermeer 330x500 maxi-rig to its fleet. This rig was first used on a Logan City Council project, which connected the Greater Flagstone Priority Development Area with the Cedar Grove sewerage treatment plant. Maxibor designed and delivered a 1.320
Maxibor Scotts Head crew 2018
“It is experience that will tell you what pressures to apply at the drill head and the right tooling and mud ingredients to achieve goods rates of penetration. Though the new technology helps, it is still the practical experience which will help you avoid the frac outs or manage them when they are inevitable.“ km bore, installing 500 mm of PE100 HSCR PN20 to a depth of over 50 m. This is still the longest HDD bore delivered in Australia since 2019. An exciting recent addition to the Maxibor fleet has been the electrified Gallagher HDD660e maxi-rig (The Hulk). The electrified spread has its own substation which also connects to two powerful Gallagher 660 e “The Hulk”.
Gardner Denver PZ9 pumps and a large Gallagher mud recycling system. The Hulk can drill up to 3.5 km in a single shot with a diameter up to 1.6 m. In an increasingly more environmentally conscious world, the electrified spreads are a way of the future, helping to significantly reduce both emissions and noise pollution. Maxibor has just added a Gallagher 600 to its maxi-rig fleet, positioning the business to be able to participate in the delivery of multiple major infrastructure projects across Australia. There are exciting times ahead for the trenchless industry in Australia and the wider Asia Pacific region, as governments and private enterprises tackle projects to help mitigate the impact of climate change. Companies are having to look to new resources such as solar and clean hydrogen for energy needs. Sea cables for power, communications and data all require HDD solutions to connect to the sea to the land. Maxibor has many bores up to and over 2 km for 2022. The company looks forward to helping more stakeholders achieve optimal infrastructure outcomes in the future. For more information go to www.maxibor.com.au/ ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 125
McCONNELL DOWELL
Adelaide Desalination Plant, 2011, Australia
McConnell Dowell celebrates 60 years of creative construction When two young entrepreneurial engineers began work on their first project in New Zealand 60 years ago this year, they were armed with a small cache of tools and a big vision.
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s they laid those first drains, footpaths and roads, Malcolm McConnell and Jim Dowell may not have realised it at the time, but they were also laying the foundations of what would become a multi-national, multidisciplinary contracting organisation - and a six-decade journey of innovation, growth and success. Today, McConnell Dowell has a network of offices across more than 15 countries, employs over 3600 people, and has capabilities in building, civil, fabrication, marine, mechanical, pipelines, rail, and tunnelling and underground construction. Over the decades the company’s tunnelling and underground expertise has developed and grown to encompass every size, technology and technique, while their geographic reach and multi-discipline capability has seen successful delivery of transport, water/wastewater, power/ energy, underpass, utility and mine related tunnels and underground structures. So, what’s behind that level of success? McConnell Dowell’s Group Technical Director for Tunnelling & Underground, Justin Shepherd, takes up the story. 126 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Malcolm McConnell and Jim Dowell.
A LONG LIST OF TUNNELLING ACHIEVEMENTS From humble beginnings blasting small diameter water main tunnels in 1973, McConnell Dowell quickly moved into auger and thrust boring solutions for rail and road pipeline crossings, followed by pioneering jacked shield mini tunnelling for long wastewater conveyance pipelines in the mid-seventies. “This was the start of our trenchless success, a
path that has seen McConnell Dowell regularly embrace new technology to lead step changes in the industry - positioning McConnell Dowell as a market leader in trenchless technology,” Shepherd says. Over the decades, the company has developed a long list of trenchless and tunnelling achievements, including: · Construction of the first segmentally lined shield tunnel in Singapore in 1975. · Establishing jacked shield mini tunnel technology in Singapore and Australia in the 1970s. · Introducing remote pipe jacked microtunnelling to South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand in the early 1980s. · The first contractor worldwide to utilise a slurry micro TBM to construct tunnels using the ‘Pipe Roof Method’ - commencing in Singapore in the early 1980s. · Constructing the first NATM tunnel in Australia in the 1980s. · Achieving unsurpassed world records in TBM advance rates for the Blue Mountains Sewage Transfer Scheme during the 1990s. This included the fastest day (172.4 m) and fastest week (703
m) of any TBM of any size or type worldwide. The best monthly average (1189 m/month for its 3-4 m dia. size class) was also achieved. · Delivering multiple award-winning hydropower projects, desalination plants and microtunnelled outfalls during the 2000s. · Undertaking major project components including record size-length HDD undertakings on all four of the major LNG projects in QLD and PNG during the LNG boom of last decade (QCLNG, APLNG, GLNG & PNG LNG). · Delivering the southern hemisphere’s largest diameter TBM driven tunnel in 2017. · Setting a new world record (surpassing the previous distance by 434 m) for Direct Pipe® technology in 2018, and then again by another 92m in 2020 (2021 m single drive). · Seven successful sub-sea TBM retrievals. · Completing the world’s longest large diameter single pipe jack drive of 1296 m through continuous very hard rock conditions in 2020. In amongst all that innovation, McConnell Dowell has successfully constructed more than 150 km of tunnels over 140 projects globally, including over 110 km of trenchless / tunnelled water and wastewater projects. “Our proudest milestone in underground construction is the highly successful Waterview Tunnel in New Zealand,” says Shepherd. “These twin tunnels, delivered by the WellConnected Alliance, were constructed by our teams using a 14.46 m diameter TBM and are currently the largest diameter TBM bored tunnels in the southern hemisphere.”
DIRECT PIPE CAPABILITY Ultra-long distance, smaller diameter trenchless pipeline installation is a specialist field where McConnell Dowell sees a bright future, investing heavily in their Direct Pipe® capability to seize the opportunity.
Stratford Lateral Pipeline Thrust-bore, 1974, New Zealand.
St Marys Bay and Masefiled Beach Water Quality Improvement Project, Pipejacking, 2020, New Zealand.
“We started with the then new Direct Pipe® technology in 2014 in Thailand, successfully completing 4 km over seven drives ranging between 354 m and 790 m in length. On this same project we also completed over 3.3 km of thrust bores and over 27 km of HDD,” Shepherd says. “Carrying out these methods together, gave us an excellent appreciation of the multitude of benefits that Direct Pipe® has over HDD and microtunnelling techniques in challenging applications such as low cover, difficult geology, sensitive environments and small site footprint undercrossings.” When the opportunity arose to use Direct Pipe® for the Army Bay Outfall Project in New Zealand, McConnell Dowell backed itself and gained full support from their client. They successfully delivered a DN1100 ocean outfall 434 m longer than previously achieved worldwide by that method. Since then they haven’t looked back, with their highly experienced team extending their single drive Direct Pipe® world record to 2021 m on a second outfall, before completing a third New Zealand project involving a treacherous marine coastline crossing, and designing a fourth project ready for construction. McConnell Dowell is confident Direct Pipe® is the way of the future and is actively looking to replicate their New Zealand and SE Asia success in Australia.
KIDSTON PUMPED STORAGE HYDRO PROJECT
Bukit Timah Outfall Jacked Shield Tunnel, 1975, Singapore.
Another other exciting project for the McConnell Dowell team at the moment is the Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro project in far north Queensland. The project is being developed by Genex Power and involves the conversion of two existing
mine pits into reservoirs. The technical feasibility and collaborative design development process took approximately four years. The construction involves significant underground infrastructure, including a large powerhouse cavern, waterway, and service shafts and tunnels to allow the transfer of water between the upper and lower reservoirs. Once completed, the facility will generate up to 250MW of rapid response power during peak demand periods and return water back to the upper reservoir during off peak periods. The facility will generate enough electricity to power 143,000 homes for eight hours.
CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION McConnell Dowell is immensely proud of its tagline Creative Construction, believing it sets the company apart from its competition. “Creative Construction at McConnell Dowell is the inspired engineering behind the complex infrastructure we deliver,” Shepherd explains. “It’s the technical problems and challenges solved behind the scenes by people empowered to think creatively. It’s the alternative idea or innovation that saves time, reduces cost, or delivers more value for our customers and community. “Regardless of whether it’s 14 metre diameter road tunnel in Auckland, the longest and largest HDD boreholes in Australia, or a challenging microtunnel in Singapore, we think creatively, apply innovation where it adds value, and maintain a safe and conservative risk approach in everything we do.” “That’s Creative Construction,” concluded Shepherd. As it looks towards its next 60 years of operation, the future looks bright for McConnell Dowell. ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 127
MELFRED BORZALL
A family affair for three generations As the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) industry marks its golden anniversary in 2021, one of its early pioneers is celebrating its diamond anniversary.
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red Melsheimer founded Melfred Welding & Manufacturing in 1946 as a venture to make tools for the installation of underground utilities without the use of trenches, excavators or shovels — a precursor to today’s HDD. His son, Richard ‘Dick’ Melsheimer joined him, pushing the industry forward and becoming an HDD industry icon. Fred developed a method for horizontally drilling a hole using a pneumatic motor to install gas mains. It was one of the first appliances to use drilling techniques with little ground disruption for the purpose of installing utilities — a practice that later became known as directional drilling in 1971. Fred designed the method as well as the bits, reamers and swivels to work with a pneumatic bore motor to power the tools.
Melfred Welding & Manufacturing Inc. warehouse circa 1946.
This method also used drill fluid to aid in the drilling and reaming process, much like it is in today’s HDD processes. Dick Melsheimer went on to start his own company in the early 1980s called Borzall Equipment, which was distinct from his father’s entity. When Fred Melsheimer passed
Sureshot drilling, New Zealand.
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away in the mid-1980s, the two companies merged to form today’s Melfred Borzall. In 2016, he handed the reins over to his sons Eric and Peter Melsheimer, who serve as the president and vice president respectively. Dick may have resigned his position as president, but he now heads research and development. Two generations after Fred started the company, the Melsheimers are still immersed in HDD. Since the 1990s, the specialised tooling maker has established itself as a niche manufacturer of directional heads, backreamers, bits, blades and an assortment of tooling accessories for drillers. Fred’s grandsons each bring their own unique abilities to grow and expand the business. One of the most exciting opportunities presented to the company was to manufacture one of the first HDD rigs available to contractors, called the Sure Shot. Eric and Dick made a trip to New Zealand to train a company that purchased the Sure Shot. During the training, with Dick on the controls and Eric up to his waist in the river locating the bit, two crossings under the Waikane River were made to install conduit for fibre lines connecting the cities of Auckland and Wellington. The crossing was 75 km north of Wellington and 2 km from the coast. The river was around 20 m wide and 2 m deep at the crossing point, which made this first-time effort a
“As we look at global expansion, we are truly looking for companies that embody the same specialisation and focus that we have tried to maintain over the past seven decades. We seek to make ourselves and network specialised HDD problem solvers, rather than just tool suppliers.” challenge. Using Melfred Borzall’s Sure Shot directional drilling system, the duo achieved a maximum depth of 7 m. After eight hours’ operation and 85 m of boring, the drill head successfully surfaced the opposite side of the river. It was an exciting moment for HDD and the company, since this was the first successful directionally drilled river crossing in New Zealand. Since then, the company has not ceased in its effort to innovate on a global scale. Melfred Borzall’s distribution network has expanded from the U.S. to Australia, New Zealand, Western Europe, and many more countries. In fact, even amidst the aftermath of a global pandemic, Melfred Borzall is expanding
Dick and Eric in Waikane River on Sureshot drilling.
and growing at an unprecedented rate in its 75 years of business. “Expanding our global distribution is a big goal of ours,” says Eric Melsheimer. With demand and support for more infrastructure improvements and communication work, Melfred Borzall is choosing its partners Melfred Borzall’s Sureshot directional drilling system.
carefully to include in the ‘Red Network’, as they call their family of authorised distributors. “Supporting our distributors is something that we take very seriously and is not simply a stamp of approval to sell red tooling,” says Josh Parker, Melfred Borzall’s marketing director. The company provides specialised training to all its distributors, so they are not simply tool suppliers, but problem solvers and educators for HDD contractors. “We support our distributors with live and virtual trainings, sales materials, leads, and integrate them with our online portal to keep them in the loop with new product updates, HDD market trends and specials. As we look at global expansion, we are truly looking for companies that embody the same specialisation and focus that we have tried to maintain over the past seven decades. We seek to make ourselves and network specialised HDD problem solvers, rather than just tool suppliers.” Melfred Borzall is always on the lookout for ways to help improve HDD tooling. Australasian soil is vastly different from one region to the next, and the company’s partnerships with key tooling distributors locally helps their insights into what drillers need at a local level. The company has prided itself on acquiring local field knowledge for three-quarters of a century. With operations expanding, the industry should expect to see more red tooling on HDD jobsites. For more information go to www.melfredborzall.com ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 129
PEZZIMENTI TRENCHLESS
Pezzimenti Trenchless was later incorporated in 2011 by Joe, Anthony and Stephen Pezzimenti.
Positioning to become a fifth-generation business in the trenchless industry It was in 1951 when the name Pezzimenti first became known in the trenchless sector when Giuseppe Pezzimenti migrated from Italy to Australia.
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aving the way for the rest of the family by working in the coal mines and construction industries, Giuseppe Pezzimenti was able to bring the rest of his family over from Italy. Having gained experience working with
Joe, Gilbert, Anthony and Stephen Pezzimenti.
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pipelaying contractors, Giuseppe started the family business, G. Pezzimenti & Sons in 1957, with his eldest sons Frank and Domenico, taking on contracts from the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works.
Giuseppe’s four sons Frank, Domenic, Gilbert and Aurelio would join the company in the following years. The jobs were primarily concerned with the construction of backlog sewers, which in those days were literally ‘pick and shovel’ work. Aurelio and Gilbert eventually joined the business separately as they left school, and pneumatic tools and backhoes had replaced the ‘pick and shovel’. The younger brothers were instrumental in the company’s progression into tunnelling. Their first job was in Thomastown, using dynamite to blast through rock. In those days, most tunnels were 100 m in length and pipe diameters ranged from 150 – 1,200 mm. The hand tunnel method was slow, cumbersome and extremely labour intensive, so the company began to experiment with very basic auger type drill rigs, built from the family’s workshop connected to Giuseppe’s house. Then followed the first Pezzimenti Laserbore laser guided machine in the mid 1980’s after much research, development, trial and error. Aurelio undertook the engineering and manufacturing side of the business with
Gilbert and Frank managed the sites and put the machine through its paces. The company compound, that was also attached to Giuseppe’s yard, was the trial field for the development of the machine. It is still believed that many cavities are remain under there. Pezzimenti Trenchless was later incorporated in 2011 by Joe, Anthony and Stephen Pezzimenti as part of a family succession plan. Director Joe Pezzimenti says he joined the family-run Pezzimenti Laserbore in 1989, followed by Anthony in 1995 and Stephen in 1997. “It was here all of us worked in the field and learnt every aspect of the machinery and construction methods,” he says. “Our father, Gilbert, still remains an integral part of the business with his 50 plus years’ of experience.” Joe says looking back at the company’s biggest milestones it is hard to narrow it down to just one. However, one that stands out is the Donvale Brach Sewer Project that commenced in November 2015 and was completed early 2018 for Yarra Valley Water and MFJ Constructions. Around 4 kms of new 300mm, 500mm, 600mm and 700mm GRP pipe was installed along and under Mullum Mullum Creek. “It was hard siltstone ground conditions and there were challenging and sensitive access issues, but we were able to complete the works due to our continued development of our hard ground and basalt capabilities along with state-ofthe-art vacuum extraction trucks,” he says. Joe says the company has grown its capabilities to tackle more challenging jobs. Pezzimenti Trenchless’ major focus has been on developing its equipment to tackle basalt ground conditions. Joe says with Melbourne’s major growth corridors, including the West and North of
Pezzimenti Trenchless’ major focus has been on developing its equipment.
Stephen, Anthony and Joe Pezzimenti..
Melbourne, which are predominantly basalt conditions, the company’s capabilities have seen unprecedented demand to complete critical, deep and risky microtunnels. “We have also invested into state of the art and powerful vacuum trucks in order to handle the deeper and larger microtunnels that require spoil to be extracted via vacuum,” he says. “Pezzimenti Trenchless commenced with four fully equipped drilling crews and now have seven full time crews.” Pezzimenti Trenchless has now branched into South Australia and Tasmania, with the thirdgeneration business now aiming to introduce a fourth and fifth generation to the business. “We pride ourselves on our unparalleled experience and expertise, as well as on our dedicated research and development program,” Joe says. “Focused on delivering the best results for our clients across the state, we are committed to providing the most efficient and effective solutions for every project, however big or small. Pezzimenti Trenchless will continue to position itself at the forefront of the trenchless industry.” ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 131
PEZZIMENTI TUNNELBORE
Typical site set-up using vacuum truck.
Innovation in the blood The Pezzimenti name has been synonymous with innovations in trenchless technology for more than 55 years. Aurelio Pezzimenti designed, built and commissioned the very first microtunnelling system in Australia in his father’s garage in Melbourne in 1986.
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uring the 1970s and 1980s, Aurelio was one of three brothers who managed G Pezzimenti & Sons – a company founded by his father in 1957. The company focused on sewer installation in and around Melbourne, with the sewer lines initially installed by hand-digging open-trench methods and boring using augerdriven systems, which were limited in terms of their accuracy and maximum length. In the mid-1980s, as the need for longer and more accurate bores became apparent, Aurelio considered an idea for a new concept in boring. With the assistance of driller Nick Bernardi, Pezzimenti Laserbore was founded. Uncertain if the concept would work, the team experimented with various drill head designs, drill rod configurations and vacuum power systems. Soon after, the whole concept began to come together. In 1986, Aurelio became the inventor of the world’s first fully steerable, hydraulic powered, laser-guided microtunnelling system using vacuum as the means to transport the spoil from the cutting chamber to the surface. The system was suited to the local Victorian conditions, being predominantly clay and basalt. With this invention, the trenchless technology technique microtunnelling - was introduced to Australia. In 1991, the company expanded into New South Wales, establishing a branch in the outerWestern suburb of Emu Plains. As the operations in
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NSW and Victoria continued to expand, so did the requirements from the water authorities for higher accuracy and longer bores over increasingly flatter grades between manholes. At that time, Sydney Water was using augerbased methods with limited reliability and accuracy. Following a successful Intercept Bore project in Blackheath in 1990, where over 200 m of DN500 gravity sewer pipe was installed on perfect line and grade, Sydney Water began using the now-proven method of microtunnelling to install sewers.
Over the years, the Pezzimenti Microtunnelling System has completed more than 4,500 microtunnels across Australia. Another notable project was the Victorian Desalination Plant Project. This project called for two parallel pipelines of DN1500 and DN1800 reinforced concrete jacking pipes. Pezzimenti won the tender and was required to build the two drilling heads to carry out the nine trenchless crossings. These were 1800 mm and 2800 mm in diameter and had to be built in just three months. Pezzimenti vacuum truck.
630 head removed from receiver shaft after pipejacking under a rail line during a shutdown weekend St Marys.
It was a huge undertaking for the business, one which Aurelio and his team were determined to deliver. In the end, all of the crossings were successfully completed in both clay and sandstone conditions, on-line and on grade. In 2013, at the International No-Dig event in Sydney, Aurelio was awarded the ASTT Person of the Year Award in recognition for his lifetime contribution to the trenchless technology industry. Being an inaugural member of the ASTT in 1989, it was an award that made both Aurelio and the company immensely proud. In addition to this
Aurelio and Gilbert Pezzimenti.
achievement, Jim Shooter, the NSW manager of the company for 25 years, won the same award in 2017, in recognition of his contribution to the industry. With its expansion into Brisbane in 2018, Pezzimenti Tunnelbore has grown to become one of the largest microtunnelling companies in Australia, helping it to successfully enter the market of installing large diameter culverts while continuing to deliver its core service of microtunnelling. As a result of constant research, development
and immense desire, Pezzimenti Tunnelbore is now able to comfortably and reliably bore up to 250 m between manholes in a single drive and up to 500 m with an intercept bore in self-supporting ground conditions – all within a 1.5 per cent tolerance. Sadly, Aurelio passed away in June 2021. He will be remembered by industry as a compulsive innovator, a savvy problem-solver and a true leader in his field. For more information visit www.pezzimenti.com.au
Aurelio Pezzimenti.
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PICOTE
Advancing the trenchless industry through transformation and education
The Midi Roller.
Picote has operated as a contractor in Finland for many years, specialising in in-house trenchless rehabilitation of all pipes from rooftop to city sewer since 2008, uniquely positioning the company to evaluate and rigorously test products before they reach the open market.
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icote is an innovator and manufacturer of unique solutions for the trenchless rehabilitation of small diameter pipes, DN32 to DN300. International product sales were launched in 2012, with Picote receiving the International Society for Trenchless Technology (ISTT) Product of the Year award with the Smart Cutter™ later that year. Picote presented its in-house lining method and a Finnish market paper in 2013 at the No-Dig Show in Sydney. From the outset, the company identified Australasia as an attractive potential market for the products. Picote partnered with local equipment suppliers and relationships developed quickly with Australian contractors who provided useful feedback for
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adapting the range for the market. Since then, Picote’s portfolio of products and solutions has multiplied. Picote’s milling machines power all tools for reinstatements, high-speed pipe cleaning, descaling, root clearing, collapsed liner removal, concrete removal and the Picote Brush Coating™ System. Picote also offers a range of high quality cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining equipment for efficient installations. Here are some of the latest innovations from Picote that will be hitting Australian shores soon, available from Picote resellers.
BATTERY POWER The Picote Mini Cleaner and Mini Miller are now available as cordless, battery-powered models, making quick work of cleaning, descaling and root removal. The Battery Mini Cleaner operates inside DN32 to DN70 pipes and the Battery Mini Miller inside DN50 to DN100 pipes, both with capabilities to reinstate
connections in DN50 and DN70 pipes. The upgraded Battery Mini Miller and Battery Mini Cleaner models are designed for use in the same way as the plug-in models. The difference is that the clutch, motor and power supply have been designed to provide the best cordless experience and much more power. The battery can provide three hours of continuous work and can be upgraded to the high-output version, which extends for four hours. It has also been designed so that a user can charge the battery while the product is still in use. Not only is it convenient, but it is also easier to transport and operate too, regardless of power outlet locations or availability. Featuring stepless speed control, both models run at 800-2200rpm and can navigate multiple or tight 90-degree bends. The Battery Mini Cleaner can even pass through DN50 P-Traps. The dedicated brushless motor on both models is a powerful new addition, making work even more efficient.
PVC grinding chain.
Both the Battery Mini Cleaner and Battery Mini Miller are equipped with useful safety features: protective outer shaft casing (so that the cable is safe to hold), shielded operator presence foot control, electric safety clutch and emergency stop. The Battery Mini Cleaner comes with a cleaning package for DN32 to DN40 pipes depending on your requirements. Both Millers can be upgraded to +C versions with integrated colour camera to track progress while you work. Coated pipe, before and after.
ADVANCES IN CIPP EQUIPMENT The new Hybrid Midi Roller is designed for wetting out CIPP liners from DN50-200. This lightweight and compact unit can be powered by the integrated battery or plugged in and charged during use. It can be mounted on a separate work surface or combined with the Midi Roller Wet Out Station. The Midi Roller is a hybrid unit, with variable speed and bi-directional controls. The built-in high-performance battery has around 10 hours of working time, which allows the operator to work anywhere without access to electricity. The belt features a silicone surface and rubberised upper wheel. It is also lightweight,
Battery powered mini cleaner.
compact and easy to transport, weighing in at 18 kg. The Wet Out Station is an innovative and practical addition to the Midi Roller, with no additional power source needed.
TWO MACHINES IN ONE The new Picote Midi Cleaner bridges the gap between the Mini Miller and the Super Midi, with one machine offering DN50 to DN150 cleaning and descaling capabilities. This machine is also suitable for reinstatements in DN50 to DN100 pipes, and for brush coating from DN50 to DN200. Offering the strength of a larger 10 mm shaft
Super Midi miller.
with the flexibility of a thinner outer casing, the Midi Cleaner has a reach of 23 m, which can be extended by 10m with a shaft extension. It is designed to navigate multiple 90-degree bends, even inside DN50 pipes. With a wide range of training and technical support available, Picote launched the Picote Institute in 2018 to provide access for customers to a huge wealth of resources, including free online courses. Subscribe for free by visiting www.picoteinstitute.com. For more information go to www.picotesolutions.com/
Twister Express opening a lateral connection.
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PRIME DRILLING
A history of optimising drilling successes Prime Drilling specialises in the design, development and manufacture of HDD rigs and equipment. For more than 20 years, the company has been recognised for its expertise in the HDD field and for using first-class materials in the development of low-maintenance and robust drill rigs.
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rime Drilling was founded in 1999 by Werner Wurm and Frank Auringer with the specific goal of designing and manufacturing high-quality horizontal directional drilling (HDD) rigs from 30 to 500 t. The company started out with 12 employees working from a 1,000m2 production facility and headquarters in Wenden, Germany approximately 75 km east of Cologne in the country’s west. The location has since grown to accommodate Prime’s more than 80 employees, with the production area subsequently increasing to 4,500m2, from which Prime’s trenchless solutions are shipped all around the world, including Australia and New Zealand where they are available through TRACO-TECHNIK Australia.
“Apart from about three rigs, all the machines we’ve manufactured since 1999 are still in operation, including our first.” The focus in Prime’s first year was to develop machines up to 50 t. In its second year, the company sold the first 220 t unit, with 320 t,
one of which is running with a customer in Australia, and 450 t rigs soon following soon after. In the years that followed, Prime matured from the focus on 30-500 t machines to diversify its drilling products, developing
MORE THAN A MANUFACTURER Werner Wurm’s son and current Managing Director of Prime Drilling, Sebastian Wurm, says the company’s products are the culmination of decades of knowledge in drilling techniques, high production quality and excellent service. “Our goal has always been to manufacture best-in-class machines, so quality is at the foundation of Prime Drilling,” he says.
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PD 45/19 Compact Unit.
industry record in equipment productivity, often resulting in savings. This extends to Australia and New Zealand, with the partnership with TRACTO supporting customers with technical training, planning and preparation from the conceptualisation of projects through to on-site execution. This level of coverage is in keeping with Prime’s corporate objective to optimise the success of its clients, which is achieved a steadfast partnership which delivers reliable service, innovative technology and customised product design.
CUSTOMISED SOLUTION
PD 300/120 E.
vertical equipment – known as multi directional drilling (MDD) machines used for oil and gas applications – compact units for smaller jobs, and more recently electric HDD machines. In 2007, it developed its first pipe pusher, capable of 400 t of push force. In the same year the PD500 was conceived, which was for a long time the largest unit in Europe. In the year, the company celebrated its 10-year anniversary, Prime introduced the first mud pump, the X-3000. The first MDD machine was sold in 2012, with the development of the first electric machine following soon after in 2019. “Adapting to changing market conditions is always a challenge, but we always listen to the wants and needs of our clients to ensure we’re delivering the best machines and advice,” says Mr Wurm. Alongside this comprehensive line-up of HDD technologies, the company also offers a range of professional services, including remote maintenance and product advice backed by a qualified team. Not only does Prime offer tailor-made technology solutions for its clients’ projects, but also extensive experience and knowhow in customising equipment designs to specific project needs. Investing in one of the company’s products also comes with the advantage of universal compatibility with global parts suppliers and a strong
Throughout its history supplying machines to Australasia, one of the most memorable projects Prime has been involved with was the delivery of specialised rigs required for an application outside its usual industry. In December 2011 an Australian company ordered two HDD rigs for coal seam gas extraction in Queensland. The requirements of the client lead Prime to develop a specialised version of the PD 100/80 RP-C capable of a penetration angle between 6-45 degrees and a maximum thrust/pull force of 100 t. With a specially developed spring-loaded park brake installed to prevent the heavy power rotary head from sliding down, even in case of total failure of the hydraulic system, the custom rig even managed to exceed Australia’s strict safety requirements. Once they had been designed and manufactured, in 2012 the two rigs were
shipped from Hamburg, Germany, on a 45day journey to Brisbane. Once on site they performed horizontal blind hole bores, with a diameter of 88.89 mm, a length of up to 1,800 m and a depth of up to 350 m.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Speaking on Prime’s greatest achievements in its more than 20 years, Mr Wurm says, was the construction of its first 500 t machine which at the time was the largest unit of its kind in Europe. “More recently, I’m very proud of our ability to diversify into designing and constructing electric HDD machines, which are recognised as the best available on the market,” he says. “The new 450 t E-machine with 140k Nm torque is considered the largest of its kind in the world.” Looking forward, plans are in place to increase the production capabilities in Wenden to 6,000m2 to accommodate the continued growth and evolution of the company’s products. The expansion will facilitate Prime’s ability to deliver customised solutions for the drilling industry into the future. “Our goal for the future is simple,” he says. “We want to continue to grow and expand our production capabilities and continue to deliver innovative and high-quality equipment which meets the demands of our clients.” For more information visit www.prime-drilling.de
PD 250/9120 RP on Pontoon.
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PRIMUS LINE
From a humble idea to the preferred solution for pipeline renewal in sensitive and difficult-to-access areas Since 2001, Primus Line has supplied tried and tested systems for the trenchless rehabilitation of pressure pipes all around the world. This is where the threads come together: A circular loom produces the flexible inner layer of the liner, which is then coated inside and out.
Vertical installation: End fittings connect the new Primus Line section with the existing pipeline.
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ike the ASTT, Primus Line is also celebrating an important anniversary this year. Development work on the company’s trenchless technology began 25 years ago, followed five years later by the brand launch and company foundation. Today, the German company has five international locations, and its products are used all over the world to rehabilitate critical pipeline infrastructure safely, in the long term and with minimal disruption.
POTENTIAL IN AUSTRALIA Primus Line made its first contact with local asset owners in 2013. In 2016 the Australian Government National Water Commission released its certification framework for
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operators within drinking water treatment systems. That’s when the company founded its Australian branch. Since then, Primus Line has become the preferred solution for pipe rehabilitation in sensitive and difficult-to-access areas. Since then, major projects have included Australia’s first 3-in-1 solution, which Primus Line completed for Hunter Water. This project involved three Primus Liners DN 450 installed in a DN 900 pipe to maintain optimum water supply for Newcastle. Traditional dig-and-replace methods would have caused road closures for several weeks causing disruption to the environment and the community; but the 3-in-1 solution allowed liners to be placed in the host pipe and pulled
through using a winch, and brought into shape one-by-one with compressed air. Another project included rehabilitating over 100 m of vertical pipeline in Sydney’s underground. A DN 150 pump pipeline transporting sewage from a tunnel up to surface level was leaking at several points and in desperate need of rehabilitation. The pipeline ran through a narrow vertical shaft, and replacing the pipeline would have been very difficult and complicated, if not impossible. Sydney Water decided to reline the existing main with a Primus Line system. Director for Australia and New Zealand Heiko Manzke says the market still poses great potential for Primus Line. “More and
more asset owners, such as Sydney Water, Urban Utilities or Unity Water are adopting our technology, not only for water pipes, but also for sewer rising mains. The percentage of wastewater projects in particular has grown significantly over the last three years,” he says.
INCREASED INTEREST IN SEWER RAISING MAINS In 2019, Primus Line was awarded the ASTT Rehab Project of the Year for its work rehabilitating a 50 m section of a sewer rising main under Biggera Creek in Queensland. Four vertical bends, each with an angle of 12 degrees, were situated in the pipeline’s route. Specialist trenchless contractor Interflow proposed the client install the Primus Line system to mitigate any issues with operating pressure. Primus Line’s aramid reinforced liner can absorb the operating pressure independently of the host pipe. It a flexible relining solution capable of accommodating bends of up to 45 degrees. The liner is also not glued to Australia’s first 3-in-1 solution.
Primus Line team receiving Rehabilitation Project of the Year award.
the host pipe, and can therefore be installed even if the host pipe is filled with water.
INSERTION LENGTH AND LOW MACHINE OUTPUT Primus Line appeals to the Australian market due to its possible pull-in length over 1000 m, as well as the low use of machinery and transport effort required for installation. Rehabilitation measures of pipelines through private residential areas can therefore be undertaken with minimal impact to the environment and the community. This is also advantageous in less developed and remote regions of Australia with areas of cultural heritage sensitivity. For example, in Cape Lambert in Western Australia, Primus Line rehabilitated more than 1.5 km of drinking water pipeline for Rio Tinto at a site of cultural heritage significance.
OVERLAND PIPING Primus Line overland piping is a safe and reliable temporary above-ground bypass solution, for the transport of hazardous liquids where temporary lines are requested. Temporary installations cause high ongoing expenses for the repeated mounting and dismantling of steel or HDPE pipes or for the trucking of the hazardous liquids from place to place. Primus Line offers an environmentally friendly solution for quick installation and reuse, even in difficult terrain. “For the future, we see a huge potential in the mining and hydraulic fracturing market,” says Manzke. For more information go to www.primusline.com
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RANGEDALE
Keeping it running for 18 years Since its establishment in 2003, Rangedale’s philosophy has been simple - “keep it running”. Managing Director Neil Kermeen says the company’s expertise, capability and scale to take on difficult jobs, has led to its success today.
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rom water boards and local councils to businesses and Tier 1 and 2 projects, Kermeen says the biggest milestone for the company was when it started working for Melbourne Water and designed a long-range CCTV camera in 2008. “The camera is the same which is used on undersea robots used for laying undersea cables and also used on Australian submarines for checking the decks are clear before they dive,” he says. “So, we built this system that would CCTV survey up to 3000 m, which we then proved up to Melbourne Water that it was suitable for the survey work required by them in their trunk sewer system of around 450 kms. The trunk sewers range from 2 m to 6.5 m in diameter, including working in man holes up to 90 m deep. Kermeen says developing those skills with a highly trained team allowed Rangedale to complete its first contract using this technology for the trunk sewers for Melbourne Water. In 2009 when the company was mainly doing dig outs of collapsed sewers and CCTV & jet cleaning of sewer pipes for South East Water and City West Water, it led to it expanding its work and growing its civil works division.
CCTV Long Range.
From this, Kermeen says the company was able to add other divisions to the business, one being traffic management in 2015. RTM Traffic has 20 vehicles and mainly services the Rangedale Group but also works directly for some of our preferred clients. “We then added to the drainage division, by including hi end jetting units, NDD trucks, concrete cutting works, asphalting, civil Rangedale’s fleet.
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infrastructure, and semi eduction services,” he says. “And from about 2015 onwards, the company grew from around 40 employees through to almost 300 today. “In 2019 we added the company Rangedale Drainage & Industrial Services (RDI) to our portfolio based in Wangaratta & Sydney, this division has extensive experience in heavy industrial cleaning plus CCTV, jet cleaning & Eduction, semi eduction, Dangerous Goods Unit, relining and Smart Lock installation.” The company started its pipe relining division Rangedale Relining & Rehabilitation Services (RRR) in 2019 and has since added a dedicated and experienced management team to run this rapidly expanding division. Rangedale also introduced a lateral sealing system, robotics for grinding out concrete, heavy tree roots or other intrusions into pipes. A new UV manhole structural lining system has been introduced using the latest European technology which will outperform anything currently on the market at a competitive cost to most others. Rangedale has also invested in the construction and operation of a clean NDD slurry recycling plant based in Keilor East, which means that every part of our excavated clean NDD slurry is returned to the infrastructure projects we are working on. Rangedale offers a complete range of
Rangedale offers a complete range of drainage solutions.
drainage solutions and has the technology, the experience and the expertise to tailor specific solutions for any problem with minimal disruption to the environment. “We run Australia’s most modern fleet of Industrial vehicles, Cappellotto combos and NDD units along with the latest IBAK & IPEC CCTV cameras, jetting units, combination / vacuum eduction units, excavators, tippers and other specialised equipment, tools, plant and safety equipment purpose built to service any industry,” Kermeen says. “Rangedale can provide our customers with a comprehensive service, as the Rangedale Group of companies is vertically integrated, allowing turnkey solutions utilising all inhouse services. “With the scale of our fleet, personnel, industry knowledge and expertise, Rangedale is the first choice when it comes to drain cleaning, manhole construction and manhole relining, inspection, maintenance and repair, utility locating and mapping, service proofing, saw cutting, restoration, relining, NDD, CCTV, traffic management, asphalting, civil works, industrial cleaning, bulk liquid and slurry waste management.” Looking to the future, Kermeen says there are enough infrastructure projects already announced in Melbourne and Sydney to take it at least through to the next 10-15 years. Rangedale has sufficient labour, resources and equipment which provide it with the flexibility of allocating high priority to emergency works, the ability to work 24/7
to complete works that may be in high traffic areas or if high flows prevent day works. As a family-run business, Kermeen now has some of his children involved in different parts of the company, each having a major influence. “They contributed to and have been a major part of the control and growth in the last six years, and I expect that sometime in the future they will be running the company,” he says. “But it is not just about family, we have a great
dedicated and passionate team that care about our clients and each other.” We feel that the complete training program we provide for all of our staff will soon give them a certificate 3 or 4 (depending on what division) which will be highly regarded within the industry. Neil says that you can be assured that any job, simple or complex that comes across our desk we will be able to come up with a solution to fix it. Rangedale’s first jet truck.
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ROB CARR
Rob Carr was founded in 1989 by Rob and Catherine Carr.
From strength to strength, paving the way for microtunnelling Beginning as a small entity in 1989 that constructed utilities infrastructure for small subdivisions, Rob Carr has progressed onto larger infrastructure projects for water and energy utilities today.
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or more than three decades, Rob Carr has been an Australian leader and pioneer in microtunnelling for the design and construction of utilities infrastructure projects in the water, energy and transport space. Covering an extensive range of tunnel diameters for varying ground conditions, it has constructed some of the most complex microtunnelling and pipe jacking projects in Australia. Paired with its expertise in civil engineering, which covers niche areas such as deep excavation, caisson construction, rehabilitation, pipeline installation and pump station construction, Rob Carr provides a total project solution for its clients in a variety of markets. General Manager Angelo Soumboulidis says in 1999, Rob Carr invested in its first trenchless machine, starting a long and successful journey to where it is today. “Trenchless operations were only in their infancy, however the company possessed significant technical nous and a hard-working mentality which allowed Rob Carr to take on major trenchless projects from the offset. The first trailer mounted Iseki TCZ250 proved to be very successful and perfect for the WA market which required compact and efficient microtunnelling machinery to construct pipelines in difficult ground conditions in dense urban environments,” he says. Not long after migrating to WA, the company re-entered the market on the east coast of Australia in 2001 and began to hit several project milestones around the country, achieving project wins for Sydney Water in 2002, Brisbane Water and South East Water in 2003. Since joining Rob Carr in 2003 from Sydney Water, Soumboulidis has overseen
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several critical phases of business operations. “The business quickly turned to trenchless operations with a focus on slurry pressure balanced microtunnelling technology. This allowed us to swiftly expand throughout the decade to where the company now owns and operates a fleet of 30 Micro Tunnel Boring Machines covering all types of ground conditions and sizes,” he says. “This was critical to our client’s decision making for those early projects in Sydney and Brisbane where the pipeline infrastructure being constructed was traversing below critical utility and transport assets and offering our clients a complete self-perform construction and delivery service.” With its expertise in microtunnelling, caisson construction, pump station delivery and working with services, Soumboulidis says the company was able to complete some of its most significant and record-breaking projects, including the Alphington Trunk Sewer project in Melbourne in 2014 with a long drive of 587m on a curved alignment through rock strengths greater than 200MPa and, its largest ever project at Green Square in Sydney between 2015 and 2017, both nationally recognized and award winning projects at the National CCF Awards. “Green Square holds a special place in the history of Rob Carr. After a successful early contractor involvement process which led to significant design changes, this critical drainage infrastructure involved the installation of 4km of DN1800 reinforced concrete pipeline exclusively via microtunnelling through multiple layers of fill, clay and rock below the water table. Pipelines were constructed in twin and triple cells over long distances with one particular triple cell
section on a curved alignment with each pipe no more than 800mm apart, a significant technical achievement,” Soumboulidis says. 2018 saw founder Rob Carr retire after a long and successful tenure. Rob and Catherine Carr started from humble beginnings. Having emigrated to Australia in the mid 1980’s, Rob was working for another civil contractor on subdivisions at the time where the entrepreneur in Rob saw an opportunity to start his own company. After some considered thought, in 1989, both Rob and Catherine took the plunge into contracting in suburban Melbourne. With a young family in tow, Rob and Catherine combined their respective skills to lead the new entrepreneurial venture and moved the company in 1995 to Western Australia where opportunities were plentiful and became the real turning point in the company starting its journey to becoming an established player in the utilities market. The company was acquired by the Seymour Whyte Group in 2014, one of Australia’s leading transport infrastructure contractors and later part of an acquisition of the Seymour Whyte Group by Vinci SA, a global contracting leader with over 200,000 employees and a turnover greater than $40 billion euro. Since 2018, Rob Carr is part of Soletanche Freyssinet, a world leader in soil, structural and nuclear engineering, the specialties business division within Vinci. Since 2018, the company is led by current Managing Director Damien Maitre, who brings 20 years of tunnelling experience to the role. Soumboulidis says after being part of two acquisitions of the business and a close to 30 year tenure, Rob decided to move on to other
new opportunities where he could apply his entrepreneurial skill. Rob and Catherine Carr’s legacy is sustained by an existing and long serving loyal employee base. 2020 saw the successful completion of a major sewer project for City West Water. Part of the four stage CBD Sewerage Augmentation project scheme, the project involved the design and construction of an OD1500, 900m long tunnel along Lonsdale in the heart of the Melbourne CBD. Soumboulidis says that the Lonsdale Street project, was another significant milestone in the company’s pursuit for excellence in project delivery. “We worked collaboratively with our client and design partner to ensure best for project outcomes throughout, whether that was early engagement with key stakeholders and community, development of modelling to improve management of traffic in the CBD or simply ensure technical excellence in long drive tunnelling through rock up to 150 MPa,” he says. On the other side of the country, the WA Operations Team was awarded the 2020 CCF WA Earth Award for Project Excellence in Civil Construction. The Quindalup project for the Water Corporation’s Infill Sewerage Program consisted 5.2 km of gravity sewer constructed by microtunnelling and 1.5km of pressure main by HDD to minimise the impact on the local
Rob Carr’s continued pursuit for delivering key infrastructure projects has never stopped.
community, environment, and conservation areas. “The Quindalup project led by long serving WA Operations Manager Barry Crowley, was yet another great example of our operational philosophy and our strong relationship with the Water Corporation. Our self-perform capability allowed us to provide our client with a one stop shop to deliver such an important project.” Soumboulidis says. The company’s continued pursuit for delivering key infrastructure projects has never stopped. In March 2021, the company was awarded the Design and Construction of the
Quinns Main Sewer Extension for the Water Corporation, a major project consisting of 1,9km of DN1800 sewer pipeline with 1.4km constructed by microtunnelling, recognizing Rob Carr’s extensive capability in delivering large diameter microtunnelling projects in challenging ground conditions. Today, Rob Carr continues to be a leader and pioneer within the sector and remains a trusted, collaborative, and award-winning contractor exhibiting a commitment to risk management, innovation, quality control, safe and environmentally friendly delivery.
First slurry pressure balanced machine purchased by Rob Carr back in 1999. Image is of an Iseki TCZ250 complete with mobile tooling containers, control room and powerpack.
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RSM
RSM Lining Supplies, Global experts in CIPP Lining Supplies and Equipment RSM offers a product range and services to support the needs of the developing market for sewer renovation through cured-in-place pipeline (CIPP) systems.
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SM Lining Supplies PTY was first established in Australia in 2011 following the strong success of its parent company RSM Lining Supplies Global Ltd in the UK, Ireland, and Europe. Founded in the UK in 2003, RSM Lining Supplies Global Ltd began as a small business before expanding to a 12,000 sq. ft factory in 2012. The idea behind the expansion to Australia was to give the Australasian market access to the CIPP technologies and methods available in Europe from a base that could be accessed centrally within the continent (Sydney, Australia). As a worldwide company, RSM is focused on offering high quality, industry proven products
RSM technical backup onsite.
Sewertronics UV LED Curing Technology at No Dig Down under trade show.
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and equipment for use in the sewer rehabilitation industry. These are delivered by their technically proven personnel who focus on their customers’ needs and develop solutions for each individual project. Over the years, RSM Lining Supplies PTY has adapted its business model to suit the Australian market, refining their product range and services. Stephen Fanning became General Manager in 2013 and brought with him a wealth of expertise. Fanning has a strong desire for success backed by twenty years’ experience. He has also been nominated for the ASTT person of the year award. RSM Lining Supplies PTY offers full customer support and on-site practical training in all aspects of lining, patching, and the use of associated equipment for all facets of the CIPP process. RSM has been awarded IMS Robotic Global Dealer of the year; the company is a proud distributor of IMS Robotic Cutter range and offers training and support across the full collection. RSM continues to develop an exciting range of new products available across their worldwide supply chain, such as their specialist liners: Delta Liner, Magmaflex, and UV Cure Speedy Liner. Delta Liner is an exclusive product to RSM Lining Supplies - it is an extremely flexible circular knit liner capable of negotiating bends of up to 90 degrees, available in 100mm and 150mm
RSM general manager Stephen Fanning at demo show.
diameter. It is seam-free to guarantee optimum flexibility and suitable for all installation and cure methods. Magmaflex is a free flowing, contour hugging, fantastically flexible liner with the capability to complete several diameter changes with ease. It is suitable for use on 90-degree bends and is glass reinforced to provide an increased strength characteristic against traditional felt liners. Magmaflex boasts a reduced resin consumption and is suitable for use with ambient and warm cure Epoxy, PU Silicate & UV LED Styrene Free resins. It is available in diameters ranging from 50mm-450mm in a variety of thicknesses. RSM’s WRc approved UV Speedy Liner launched back in 2018. It is a glass reinforced GRP woven product with an increased strength characteristic as opposed to standard felt liner. Available in diameters ranging from 150mm to 300mm, Speedy Liner is suitable for UV and LED curing, making it an incredibly versatile UV liner. From its beginning in 2003, RSM Lining Supplies’ ethos has been to introduce choice and technology to the CIPP industry, positioning it as a forward thinking, market-leading supplier, committed to providing only the highest-class of materials and a top-level service. The company supplies the full package of technical knowledge, equipment, services, and materials to the wastewater industry worldwide. For more information go to www.rsm-web.com/
RSM headoffice, Doncaster, UK.
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SECA
SECA aiming to be more than just a supplier What started out more than 50 years ago as a sideline to a plumbing business out of a Sydney family home, has grown into one of Australia’s most recognised trenchless technology brands, supplying some of the world’s leading brands and no-dig solutions. Despite this, the fabric of SECA remains the same, taking the same intimate approach to every customer relationship, providing expert knowledge, support, and training during the process.
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hile today it’s recognised as an industry leader, offering a comprehensive range of products from a plumber’s drain cleaning rod, to the latest in CCTV inspection equipment and software, Sewer Equipment Company Aust, better known as SECA, came from humble beginnings. The company as it’s known today was
established in 1967 when George Rose, a Sydney-based plumber registered Nordkapp Investments and was appointed the sole Australian representative for Electric Eel. George continued to scour the world for the most innovative products and as the business expanded SECA was born. In the late 1980s SECA started importing and selling CCTV equipment, and then
The company was started by Sydney-based plumber George Rose.
SECA’s establishment in Marrickville up until 2009 before moving to its headquarters now in Chipping Norton.
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in the early 1990s, around the same time the Australasian Society for Trenchless Technology (ASTT) was being conceived and incorporated, the company started to develop and manufacture water jetting units. By 1994, the company had grown to have 10 employees. In 1995, the company started importing and selling combination and recycler trucks out of Denmark. It was in this same year that the company employed a resident Sales Representative in Queensland. By the end of the millennium, SECA had doubled again, with their team including a dedicated employee to sell and support pipeline inspection software in Australia. Soon after, the company added its own service workshop for CCTV equipment and hired its first in-house CCTV technician, which coincided with the company acquiring the rights to distribute several other leading CCTV inspection camera systems throughout not only Australia but also New Zealand. In 2008, the company introduced another revolutionary product to the region, acting as the sole Australian distributor of a patented formula to remove pipeline roots. At the same time SECA updated its website to include its first online shop and introduced Americanmade high pressure jetting machines to its product line. By 2009, SECA now employed four full time CCTV technicians and the company moved to its current headquarters in Chipping Norton in Sydney’s southwestern suburbs, at the same time acquiring a second factory and establishing a truck/jet service division. In 2013, SECA opened a Queensland warehouse, meaning it could support service and supply clients along the entire eastern seaboard. By 2016, the company had almost 30 employees and celebrated the milestone of supporting its first apprentice to becoming fully qualified. In the same year, the company’s Victorian base moved to its current location in Carrum Downs, featuring its own
SECA at the Penrith CIVANEX Show in the early 90s.
dedicated CCTV service facility. In the years that followed, SECA continued to support the industry by continuing to supply leading products and support to the industry. In 2020 the company was able to navigate the challenges posed by COVID-19. As a supplier to an essential industry, it was largely business as usual, with SECA continuing to support its clients working out in the field. Despite what were uncertain times, the company expanded even further, constructing SECA Academy, its own Demonstration, Testing and Training Facility at its headquarters, as well as introducing nationally recognised CCTV courses. The Academy also provides a space for product demonstrations where customers can see any equipment in action on a fully functional pipe and drainage system complete with manholes. More than 50 years on, SECA Managing Director Mark Quealy says these most recent diversifications represent George’s business acumen, based on growth and adaptation, but also to deliver the best for the company’s clients. “Our mission is to provide quality sought after products from around the world and bring those products to the Australian market, as well as provide quality after sales service for the products we sell,” says Mark. “By continuing to expand our inhouse training, we can train technicians specifically to our product range.” He says SECA has an evolving goal to ensure its customers have the best experience by providing a one-stopshop where customers are provided with sales, support and service, plus training
In 1978 SECA started importing and selling rodding equipment.
SECA at a Tradeshow in the early 1970s.
for the products they buy. “We want to ensure customers get the most out of their equipment,” he says. “By ensuring we hold enough spare parts in-house and a technician is readily available for a customer’s service needs, we want to reduce as much downtime as possible.”
Despite the current challenges that are facing nearly all businesses now, SECA is excited by the future, with several innovative and new products in the pipeline. For more information visit www.seca.com.au
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SEKISUI RIB LOC AUSTRALIA
Loc’ed and loaded Sekisui Rib Loc Australia founder Bill Menzel was the first to pioneer enhanced spiral wound liner systems. Over its long history, the company has carried out many innovations to its trenchless technologies, greatly expanding the capability of the process. Ribsteel used in Abu Dhabi, 1997.
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or the past 37 years, Sekisui Rib Loc Australia has been developing trenchless technologies for the rehabilitation of damaged pipe infrastructure around the world. Despite having undergone several changes over the years, the company’s core vision is still the same: to work together with willing partners to provide innovative solutions to deteriorated pipe networks. The spiral wound liner system was first conceived in 1978 and patented in 1983 as the brainchild of South Australia inventor Bill Menzel AO OBE. He officially founded what was then known as Rib Loc Australia in June 1984. While the spiral system was put to use in many countries around the world for the purposes of column formwork and new pipe fabrication, Bill – an entrepreneurial spirit and global traveller – saw the growing need for a reliable, high-quality method of lining aging and failing pipes. Setting his mind to finding a solution, Expanda™ was born.
A HISTORY OF INNOVATION The core principle behind each of Sekisui Rib Loc Australia’s technologies is the in situ forming of a standalone structural liner through the helical winding of a factory extruded profile. Sekisui’s first pipe rehabilitation technology was Expanda, developed in 1983 for the close fit lining of small to medium diameter pipes. Other technologies were developed over time, as the need for more innovative approaches in large diameter pipe rehabilitation became apparent. Ribsteel™ followed in 1996, as a large diameter, high stiffness liner. Rotaloc™ was developed in 2001, initially in order to line conduits that weren’t directly adjacent to access chambers. Rotaloc is still used in structural lining for deteriorated circular pipes and culverts. It consists of a single, continuous PCV strip, which is progressively wound into the existing pipeline by a winding machine – no excavation required. Ribline™ was developed in 2005, providing a more cost-efficient means of large diameter rehabilitation. After acquisition by Sekisui Chemical Co. in 2009, Sekisui Rib Loc Australia gained access to Sekisui’s SPR™ technology for the rehabilitation of non-circular conduits. 148 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Ribline - Interflow, Coogee Project, 2005.
Ribsteel winding pipe from benching, Abu Dhabi, 1997.
AWARD WINNING TECHNOLOGIES Sekisui Rib Loc Australia was proud to have had two of its technologies recognised by industry, when the company was awarded the International Society for Trenchless Technology No-Dig award for product of the year (Ribsteel, in 1997, and Rotaloc, in 2001) and to go on to have its other technologies used in ISTT No-Dig award winning projects. Interflow and Sekisui Rib Loc Australia won the 2010 ISTT No-Dig award for the use of Ribline in the rehabilitation of the North Georges River Submain in Sydney. This project went on to be the world’s longest
and largest continuous spirally wound pipe liner from a fixed winding machine. In 2012, Trenchless Technologies CC won the award for rehabilitating sewers in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, using Expanda, among other technologies.
NEW CHALLENGES REQUIRE NEW SOLUTIONS While the present climate poses some challenges for Australian manufacturing, Sekisui Rib Loc Australia proudly continues to design, develop and manufacture the current and next generation of Australian spiral wound pipe rehabilitation technologies here in Australia.
While others seek to imitate, Sekisui Rib Loc Australia continues to innovate, expanding and improving the capability of its product offerings to meet the needs of both its installer partners and asset owners around the world. Sekisui Rib Loc Australia continues to work with Interflow and similar likeminded organisations, seeking to contribute to improving the lives of communities. The company looks forward to the opportunities and challenges that the next 30 years and beyond will bring. For more information go to www.sekisuispr.com/
Sekisui Rib Loc headoffice, South Australia.
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TRACTO-TECHNIK
TRACTO evolves to be more than a dealer
TRACTO’s new 2,400m2 base, which includes a 1,500m2 building, in Lucscombe, Queensland, is located halfway between Brisbane sand the Gold Coast.
TRACTO-TECHNIK is renowned in Australia and New Zealand – as it is the world over – for supplying the highest quality trenchless products. In the 20 years since TRACTO Australia, formerly TT ASIA PACIFIC, was incorporated, the business has undergone significant growth, culminating in a recent move to a purpose-built facility to supports its expanding customer base.
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RACTO-TECHNIK was established in Saalhausen in 1962 by Paul Schmidt, with the ambition of designing and manufacturing the best trenchless products available. A legitimate pioneer of the no-dig technologies, the company is credited with designing one of the first true trenchless products ever to be produced: the GRUNDOMAT soil displacement hammer. Today, TRACTO is a leading supplier of horizontal directional drilling (HDD) equipment with a comprehensive range of equipment for the trenchless TRACTO’s GRUNDODRILL, which enables the greatest possible flexibility and maximum productivity in controlled trenchless pipe laying.
installation and replacement of new and existing underground infrastructure. Its range includes GRUNDOMAT soil displacement hammers and ramming machines, GRUNDOPIT mini drilling systems, GRUNDODRILL HDD systems and GRUNDOBURST pipe bursting systems. The business has more than 600 employees worldwide and sales representatives in over 70 countries, including Australia and New Zealand, supplying the company’s unique product portfolio, to Australasia and Southeast Asia.
LANDING DOWN UNDER TRACTO Australia was established as TT ASIA PACIFIC in 2000 to service the trenchless markets in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. The business was initially located on the Gold Coast, Queensland, from where TRACTO built an extensive network of customers and distributors across Australasia, as well as Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, and of course China. Coinciding with the appointment of Jeff Rose as Managing Director in 2017, the company changed its name from TT Asia Pacific to TRACTO-TECHNIK Australia emphasising the affiliation of the local business with the worldwide TRACTO-TECHNIK group of companies.
TAKING SERVICE TO NEW HEIGHTS In recent years, while the design and production of the equipment has been enhanced in Germany, locally, the team has been focused on growing its commitment to provide unparalleled customer service, solidifying its reputation as
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more than an equipment dealer. Choosing a TRACTO machine is only the beginning of the client-supplier relationship, with comprehensive service and consultation from in-house experts who truly care about resource-friendly and sustainable trenchless solutions to come in the decades a machines is out in the field. To facilitate this vision for the business, in 2019, the company relocated to a purposebuilt facility in Luscombe, halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The 2500m2 premises allows TRACTO to have more inventory on hand to support the Australian and New Zealand markets. In addition, there’s enough space to stock an extensive range of spare parts and related drilling and rehabilitation equipment, such as GRUNDOBURST and GRUNDORAM. The company also has the ability to host clients for hands on training and professional development on live machines, so they can try before they buy. As part of a partnership with fellow German manufacturer Prime Drilling, TRACTO Australia is
also responsible for sales and support for Prime’s machines in the region, including it’s range of compact machines and maxi rigs which are mainly used for oil and gas pipeline installations.
MORE THAN A DEALER The concept behind the steps taken to support this idea is to create – and more importantly maintain – meaningful and lasting relationships. This ideology has resulted in TRACTO building a growing list of customers who have an appetite for high quality and innovative trenchless solutions, and gives contractors the opportunity to deal directly with the manufacturer. TRACTO believes in guiding customers through all stages of the product process, from purchase to training and after sales support. This includes giving clients access to technical and engineering support in real time. The customer-first experience is delivered by TRACTO’s team of dedicated trenchless experts who have a strong understanding of the industry. The group comprises experienced team members, long-term employees and seasoned operators.
This level of support is backed-up by the company’s unique range of HDD systems, which standout from the competition with increased digitalisation and automation. TRACTO’s products are constantly being refined based on end user feedback, with resources fed back into the business to explore research and development to find new solutions for customer’s problems. Despite its global reach, TRACTO Australia places a strong emphasis on the specific requirements of the domestic market. Once new products are developed, they are subjected to rigorous testing before being released to the international market. This attention to detail, along with the level of support its clients receive, is the reason TRACTO has a reputation for premium product with quality and longevity, which gives clients a strong return on investment over a longer period of time. For more information visit www.tracto.com/au
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UEA
UEA Gallagher 660 set up on ocean outfall project, Coogee, NSW.
One-stop-shop for HDD solutions Underground Envirotech Australia – now known simply as UEA – was established in Goulburn, NSW to provide trenchless installations for utility companies in the southern region of NSW and the ACT in 1995.
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ince its establishment 26 years ago, UEA has grown its business to focus on its core business - horizontal directional drilling (HDD). With continual improvements to its techniques, operator training and education, backed by HSEQ solutions, the company ensures it continues to lead the way in the industry. UEA was founded by Andrew Rowlands and Keith Whittaker when the two men worked at Woodlawn mine near Goulburn, NSW. Co-Founder and Director Keith Whittaker says one day a friend of his, who worked for Telstra, mentioned they should look at directional drilling. “We needed a change and we were told about HDD and went and bought one.
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The company today is unrecognisable. We started with one machine and staff member and today we have 11 HDD rigs and 40 employees, Whittaker says. UEA General Manager Steve Hopkins says after some investigation the men decided on purchasing a TT 10s HDD rig mainly because it had percussion on it for harder ground. “Hence, the company was formed in November 1995 and named Underground Envirotech Australia (UEA),” he says. “A trip to TT in Europe followed and the drill rig was delivered in January 1996 with the first HDD project commencing for Actew in Canberra in February 1996.” Hopkins says Actew and Telstra were among the first clients to utilise the technology for electrical upgrades, sewer renovations and new
communications networks. UEA’s TT 10S Grundodrill was the first HDD rig of its kind to work in the ACT and surrounding areas. In 1998, on the back of the telecommunications boom, UEA grew from the initial three employees to over 70 personnel. Backed by a fleet of Vermeer HDD rigs UEA entered the rock drilling market with a D50 x 100 supported by a DFE cleaning system. In 2000 UEA capitalised on its strength within the utilities sector and increased its market share in the Greater Sydney area – in particular the electricity market. By the year 2000 offices were open in Sydney and Canberra, servicing a large part of NSW and the ACT. Between 2000 and 2007, once established in Sydney, UEA’s commitment to high quality
Ocean outfall Project on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, NSW.
now recognised as an industry leader with the ability to successfully deliver significant projects around Australia. Whittaker says the company goes in cycles, with it surviving every downfall and still working towards new goals. “Each year is a milestone for us. There have been many highlights from over the last 26 years, so it is hard to pinpoint a particular one,” he says. “Based on what we have worked through over the last 26 years who knows what the next 30 years will bring.” Both Hopkins and Whittaker hope UEA remains a family-orientated business, and a onework and innovative approaches opened up opportunities to become a panel contractor in the electrical market with Endeavour Energy and other major civil contractors. Further diversification into other infrastructure sectors, such as water, waste water and sewer quickly followed. 2010 marked the year the company won the ASTT New installation of the year award for the Brighmore Park Project – 1403 metres of 500mm PE on grade. This success paved the way for a long-term relationship with Sydney Water and its contractors eventually delivering in excess of $60 million of projects. Six years later UEA successfully completed its first ocean outfall HDD on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. This lead the way for multiple installations across the country over the next five years. In 2017 an additional Vermeer D330 x 500 was added to the UEA Maxi Rig Fleet to further cement UEA’s position in the market. UEA is
stop-shop for your HDD solutions. “I know I won’t be here, but hope to leave it in a healthy state for the younger generation to run with. If they stick to the same model there is no reason the company will stay at forefront of the Australian HDD industry,” Hopkins says. “We will continue along the line we have been going on for the last 26 years and I want it to maintain a good environmentally friendly company,” Whittaker says. “UEA has become one of the best HDD contractors in Australia by embracing technology changes, continual improvement to its equipment, processes and system as well as investing in its staff via regular training and education.”
UEA Gallagher 660 delivering recycled water main under the Shoalhaven River, NSW.
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VERMEER AUSTRALIA
Thirty years of trenchless technology for Vermeer Australia In the 1970s, Gary Vermeer had a vision: if Vermeer could develop a machine that could dig in a manner similar to a mole tunnelling underneath a road, without opening up a trench, it would blow open the market, and make Vermeer an industry pioneer.
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ver the next decade this vision became a reality, and the industry saw the potential impact this would have in underground construction.
THE EARLY DAYS Vermeer has always had a culture of innovation. In 1979, Vermeer introduced a simple rotary attachment (also known as a porta bore) that was used on small- to medium-size trenchers and vibratory plows for tunnelling underneath different rights-of-way and other obstacles. It was a simple attachment that proved to be popular, as it saved time and money by eliminating the need to open cut footpaths and driveways. After the introduction of the porta bore, Vermeer could further see the potential in underground infrastructure and trenchless technology.
Vermeer’s range of horizontal directional drills today.
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VERMEER’S FIRST HDD MACHINES The first trenchless machines started to make their way into the Australian market in the 1990s, and the demand for this type of technology started to rise. The time was ripe for Vermeer to start designing its own trenchless machinery and put its stamp on this revolutionary product. The first horizontal directional drilling (HDD) machine Vermeer introduced was the Navigator® HDD (which later became the D7 model) in 1991. It was a basic model that needed a significant amount of labour to set up and drill. Everything on these machines was a manual process. Vermeer’s team spent a lot of time in the field staging demonstrations for customers, introducing them to this new technology and
gathering on-the-ground feedback. In 1995 the second generation of self-contained HDD drills was introduced to the Australian market – this was the defining moment for Vermeer, as it put its mark on this up-and-coming industry.
INDUSTRY IMPACT AND NOTABLE PROJECTS Product reliability has always been a big focus for Vermeer, and still is to this day. Improvements in the machine hydraulics and the introduction of a forged rod enhanced drill performance, reliability and helped build confidence in the technology. HDDs, known for their low impact on the surrounding environment, have played an integral part in many significant construction and infrastructure projects across Australia.
In the 90s, the rollout of Foxtel and cable television to households required trenchless technology for minimal disturbance to residential areas, and Vermeer’s HDDs were often the machine of choice. The installation of NBN from 2011 saw HDDs playing an increasingly important role in connecting households to the network. The trenchless technology benefitted residents and the environment and provided economic benefits, allowing a connection to be established with as little impact as possible.
The market leading D100X120SII was in market from 2006 to 2016.
RIGS FOR JOBS BIG AND SMALL The introduction of compact Vermeer HDDs in the late 90s and early 2000s, such as the D7X11 and D16X20, allowed for more versatility when working with differing ground conditions. When Vermeer introduced a smaller drill to the range, it opened up the market and offered more variety and versatility for those working with a fleet of HDDs, particularly on larger projects. HDD technology has become more compact over the years, but it has not been at the expense of power. Customers can use compact machines on a larger job that might have tight access, but still expect the same drilling performance and output that the larger models offer.
THE S3 RANGE The S3 range of Vermeer HDDs was introduced in 2015 and made rock drilling a lot simpler for operators, without compromising on productivity. The range includes the smaller D10x15 S3 HDD, weighing just over 3,000kg, up to the 17,000kg D60x90 S3 HDD. The range’s control interface, which includes the ability to load your plan onto the screen in
front of you instead of referring to hard copies when mapping out where to drill, made tasks vastly easier. The S3 range is also quieter than previous models, meaning less disturbance to the surrounding environment, a real plus for residential and suburban projects.
TECHNOLOGY OF THE FUTURE Vermeer is always looking at ways that technology can improve operations for customers, whether that’s through product improvements, research and development, or the latest training techniques. The Navigator® HDD Simulator 2.0 was developed to take the headache out of HDD training, which can often be costly and time consuming. Packed with features, the
Vermeer’s first HDD machine, the D7, was introduced in 1991.
Horizontal Directional Drill Simulator trains operators on the basics of operating drill controls, using real-world drilling simulation without the need to set foot on a real drill. Operators get instant feedback, alerting when drilling goes off target and guiding them back to safer alignment. The simulator will be a gamechanger for many Vermeer Australia customers, with controls that span across the Vermeer line-up of drills that will help with a smooth transition to a real drill.
THE VERMEER AUSTRALIA OF TODAY In 2015, Vermeer Australia became part of the RDO Australia Group, a subsidiary of North Dakota-based RDO Equipment. Globally, RDO Equipment is the world’s largest John Deere and Vermeer dealer group, with presence in Africa, Australia, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine. Today, the Vermeer Australia business is 100 per cent owned by RDO Equipment, who sells the Vermeer range of industrial and environmental products, as well as John Deere Construction & Forestry and agricultural equipment. The size and breadth of the Australian industrial equipment network means the business can offer Vermeer Australia customers a range of product and level of customer support that is unmatched. From telecommunications and electricity to gas, water and energy pipelines – underground infrastructure contractors continue to use Vermeer HDDs to get the job done, supported by one of the largest and most trusted equipment dealership networks in Australia. To find out more about Vermeer Australia and its full range of HDDs, head to www.vermeeraustralia.com.au or call 1300 VERMEER. ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 155
WILMOT
The story of Wilmot Pipelining After developing many skills in pipeline construction and becoming a craftsman at his trade Andrew Wilmot finished his apprenticeship in 2002.
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fter returning from Europe in 2004 Andrew took up a role in Business Development for a wastewater treatment company. Working in the wastewater treatment sector became a passion for Andrew as he could start to see the importance of keeping pollution out of our waterways. In 2006, Andrew became involved in trenchless whilst contracting pipe bursting to upgrade sewer mains across many areas in Australia. Once Andrew was introduced to trenchless, he says it became a strong ambition to start his own company specialising in these technologies.He also studied business administration in addition to his field experience. Continuing his work in civil construction and commercial plumbing and drainage as a foreman in Queensland, Andrew worked here for three years before founding Wilmot Civil in 2012. The company kicked off officially in Newcastle, NSW, where he setup an office out the back of the garage and started from there. The business started by offering house service lining and small-scale civil pipeline construction and point line repairs. In 2015, Wilmot Civil began working on much larger scale projects for local councils and utilities. The motto was laid out clearly from the start for anybody working for
156 ASTT 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
“Andrew Wilmot says he believes the industry will keep growing and evolving with new technologies, and Wilmot Pipelining has worked extremely hard to be well positioned to continue to grow with the industry.” Wilmot. Not only does the company do quality work, it’s also about service, being professional and leaving the site immaculate. Wilmot Civil began trading as Wilmot Pipelining as 90 per cent of the projects the company was delivering were pipe relining and pipe rehabilitation. The business spread out its offerings to the market to have a trenchless solution for every asset type and situation. The business invested in UV CIP cured in place technology in 2018 and have built a reliable rehabilitation service with this technology. Wilmot now delivers large pipeline rehabilitation projects across Australia, with a growing awareness of the business capabilities and expertise. The Wilmot team have recently successfully delivered the Largest UV CIP Liner installation in Australia, which has attracted international attention from the industry. Wilmot Pipelining has also developed large pipe diameter slip lining techniques which have been successfully implemented on projects over recent years. The business also has pressure
pipe relining capabilities and the Manhole Liner’s for sewer manholes. The company is proud of having trenchless solutions in potable water, waste water, storm water, culverts and sewers. “Wilmot Pipelining prides itself on having a strong company culture that is based on traditional values. The business has also developed a very strong engineering team that are well backed by talented field crews,” Wilmot says. “The business encourages training and development of staff and positivity is at the forefront of the company’s values, with respecting and caring for others treated as a vital factor for the team being happy and working in a positive team environment. “The business is proud of its achievements over the past 10 years, and looks forward to many more years serving the industry.” Andrew Wilmot says he believes the industry will keep growing and evolving with new technologies, and Wilmot Pipelining has worked extremely hard to be well positioned to continue to grow with the industry.
Andrew Wilmot says he believes the industry will keep growing and evolving.
The Wilmot team upon completion of a DN2400 slip line culvert rehabilitation project.
The business invested in UV CIP cured in place technology in 2018.
Wilmot Civil was founded in 2012.
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Advertisers Adept Civil
69
KRE
67
Prime Drilling
39
Aussie Trenchless Supplies
15
Kwik-ZIP
59
Rangedale
53
Austeck
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33 26-27
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13
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6-7
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49
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51
Iplex Pipelines
43
Picote
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55
Primus Line
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34-35
Vermeer Australia
16-17
21
Wilmot Pipelining
8-9
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