Trenchless Australasia

June 2008

From the Chairman’s Desk

International News The International Society for Trenchless Technology continues with its program of change in accordance with its Strategic Plan 2006-2010, or 2K10. Most of the major initiatives identified in 2K10 have now been undertaken or are underway.

Secretary’s Corner

ASTT Strategic Review Councillors met in Melbourne recently to undertake a strategic review of the ASTT's Business Plan. The main purpose of this meeting was to review our primary objective of ensuring that we ‘facilitate the advancement of Trenchless Technology in Australia and New Zealand’ and to consider ways in which the ASTT can move forward.

Collaborative research centre for US and China

The China-US Joint Centre for Trenchless Research and Development has been initiated out of a recent workshop discussing critical underground infrastructure.

ASTT 2008 Conference “Best Ever”

Trenchless Australasia 2008 took place in Sydney Olympic Park in the first week of March. The event built on the success of the International Brisbane No Dig to create an event that was, on the one hand “just a local show” but on the other an event of an international standard.

Preparation kicks off for 2009

Melbourne in September used to mean one thing; footy. Now, it has a second meaning as well, Trenchless Technology. Building on the success of Trenchless Australasia 2008, the next great event has been planned for Grand Final week, September 20-22 in Melbourne in 2009. Not only that, the event will take place at Melbourne Park which is only metres away from the hallowed turf of the MCG.

The role of CCTV in pipeline rehabilitation programs

Every year, billions of dollars are spent worldwide on the rehabilitation of wastewater systems. The work, for the most part is determined by a condition assessment which, in turn, is based on the data collected during an investigation. Steven Apeldoorn of ProjectMax New Zealand elucidates the role that Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) pipeline inspections play and what information can be obtained as part of a rehabilitation investigation program.

Concrete pipe installation and inspection

The ‘Design for installation of buried concrete pipe’ was recently released as a joint standard in Australia and New Zealand (AS/NZS 3725). David Millar from the Concrete Pipe Association of Australasia (CPAA) says that the document proves to be extremely important, particularly to contractors and installers of concrete pipe

Singapore’s PUB talks water

Trenchless Australasia caught up with the Chief Executive of Singapore’s, the Public Utilities Board (PUB) Khoo Teng Chye to talk about the Singapore International Water Week and PUB’s strategy for water restoration and development – including Trenchless Technology .

Kembla proud to play a role in Singapore’s ‘Reservoir in the city’ project

Kembla Watertech is currently involved in four of the 19 separate sewer pipeline rehabilitation contracts involved in the development of the Marina Barage in Singapore.

Companies open new Asia-Pacific offices in Singapore

Vermeer and Trelleborg epros have both established offices in Singapore in order to provide sales and marketing support to dealers in the region.

‘us’ saves the day with leak detection

When South East Water pioneered the use of a new ‘us’ acoustic leak detection technology in an attempt to identify hidden leaks in its water supply system – they saved close to 250 ML of potable water and increased the overall water network efficiency.

J-Series bags Humes New Installation Award

A major upgrade to the Perth Main Sewer using Humes’ precast J-Series jacking pipes has seen the company take out the ASTT Project of the Year, presented at the Trenchless Australasia 2008 Conference and Exhibition.

Interflow grabs award for rehabilitation of Western branch main sewer

Some 37 m below ground in inner-western Sydney, Interflow has installed a structural liner in 1.4 km of 2m high, 100 year old ovoid sewer, which saw the company take out the ASTT Rehabilitation Project of the Year, presented at the Trenchless Australasia 2008 Conference and Exhibition.

Don’t rock the train: pipeline installed through railway embankment

In February this year, New Zealand’s Hutt City Council and MWH New Zealand successfully used Trenchless Technology to ram 36 m of steel-casing beneath a railway line embankment as part of the council’s risk management strategy to improve the reliability of the aging wastewater network.

HDD aids Brisbane River crossing for WCRW

Faced with an almost kilometre-wide crossing of the Brisbane River in South East Queensland, the Western Corridor Recycled Water (WCRW) Project decided that Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) provided the safest, most environmentally sensitive and cost effective option.

Winslow tunnelling hits the spot

Winslow Infrastructure has successfully completed the tunnelling and full installation of water pipes under Queensland’s Bremer River as part of the Western Corridor Recycled Water Pipeline (WCRWP) Project.

Trenchless takes care up Upper Blue Mountains Sewerage

Sydney Water’s Upper Blue Mountains Sewerage Scheme has used a number of different trenchless technologies to overcome the environmental, community and safety issues faced when tackling the project.

Pipe bursting amplifying Blue Mountains sewerage

When CLM Trenchless completed pipe bursting for the Sydney Water Corporation’s Upper Blue Mountains Water Scheme, the technique proved extremely advantageous.

TT introduces 1,000 mm pipe bursting roller blade

Tracto-Technik has developed a new 1,000 mm roller blade, which will be used to renew a 1,000 mm steel drinking water pipe for the first time.

Pipe bursting water lines in Port Melbourne

South East Water’s Port Melbourne pipe main was upsized to meet the demands of the growing number of businesses in the precinct. A Hammerhead bursting system was used to change 700 m of 225 mm diameter asbestos cement pipe to 355 mm diameter polyethylene pipe.

Risk management at the Drogheda microtunnelling project

A microtunnelling project in the Irish town of Drogheda demonstrated the necessity of employing risk management practices. Here, Geoff Bateman of PB Australia champions the necessity to adopt a risk management approach, using the Drogheda project as a case history demonstrating that size isn’t important when it comes to tunnelling risks.

Infrastructure Constructions deals with low pressure in Bega

Although low pressure sewers are relatively new to Australia, they are becoming increasingly popular because they are proving to be the most economic sewerage solution in some ground conditions. Infrastructure Constructions talks about its experience installing Bega Valley Shire’s Low Pressure Sewerage Project.

Fusing at higher interfacial pressures

Discussion continues as to whether the best way to fuse polyethylene (PE) pipe is at an interfacial pressure of 0.15 MPa (21.75 psi) or 0.517MPa (75 psi). Both procedures are widely used and produce good outcomes when destructively tested as well as surviving the test of time. A paper by Ted Striplin of McElroy Manufacturing in the USA sets out to provide some preliminary examples for the benefits of fusing at higher interfacial pressures.

Long distance microtunnelling with polymer concrete

Polymer concrete (PC) products have been used for decades in the engineering, building and chemical industry. PC pipe was first developed in the late-1960s by German-based construction company, Zublin. Dr Gerhard Lang explains the benefits of using PC pipe while implementing Trenchless Technologies such as microtunnelling and pipe jacking.

Pipe reaming replacement of earthenware sanitary sewer pipe

When New Zealand’s Invercargill City Council renovated 858 m of 1920s earthenware pipelines located under arterial roads within the city, the work was successfully completed using threaded joint PVC pipe, installed by trenchless pipe reaming.

PPI PE pipe: the pick of Australia

PPI’s polyethylene (PE) pipe is well respected by both installers and fabricators as being ‘the pick’ of Australian produced PE pipe when quality issues such as material, dimensional accuracy and lack of ovality are essential to a professional result in their projects.

Announcing Catamount easy-start ACTIVE HEAD piercing tools

A breakthrough design concept in pneumatic piercing tool technology , the HammerHead Mole Catamount easy-start ACTIVE HEAD, features ‘smart head’ technology and is based on proven down-hole hammer technology.

Vaporooter: the trenchless war against tree root intrusion

While parks departments, businesses and homeowners work to beautify the landscape above ground, the problems those efforts can create below ground are reaching epic proportions. Distributed by RSP Trenchless Technologies, Vaporooter provides a solution to this!

A successful performance fo M-Coating in Cornwall

Although not Hollywood, UK’s Cornwall is a popular location for filming – featuring in movies such as the James Bond thriller Die Another Day. PERCO Engineering Services recently starred in a feature of its own at the quaint port-side town.

How to Win Tenders Summit Melbourne 2008

Planning, negotiation and tender writing presentation were three skills delegates learnt how to improve upon at the How to Win Tenders Melbourne Summit 2008, held at the inner-city RACV Club from the 12-13 May.

Air Excavation made easy

Drillers World Australia are distributing a tool that can penetrate and dislodge soil using a stream of supersonic air moving at twice the speed of sound – Mach 2.

HMA talks product

Hard Metals Australia (HMA) tells Trenchless Australasia about its path to distributing Trenchless Technologies and the range of products they have available.

Introductin the vCam CCTV inspection camera

In a world where ‘the bottom line’ seems to have replaced ‘customer service’, Vivax has committed itself to work with its customers in order to introduce a new range of products that capitalise on new technologies and processes – including the vCam CCTV camera system.

Mapping the underground for a new metropolitan railway in Dublin

Although on different sides of the world, the importance of mapping underground infrastructure in Dublin, Ireland is just as imperative as it is in Australia. A recent upgrade of Dublin’s existing road infrastructure and reorganisation of public transport system demonstrated the advantages of underground mapping systems.

CIPP - The perfect solution for dangerously deteriorated stormwater pipe

Insituform’s cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP) lining system was recently used to successfully rehabilitate one of the worst stormwater pipes it had ever encountered in Australia.

New dimensions for pipe jacking and microtunnelling

The new Jackcontrol®-Service-Package, in combination with actual high precision real-time navigation systems, allows higher security-levels for pipe-installation, faster installation progress, smaller radii of curvature and therefore a wider range of application for pipe jacking and microtunnelling.