Until recently, Mr Krumins was the Manager of Infrastructure and Planning at Queensland Urban Utilities (QUU). The ASTT Person of the Year award recognises his achievements in Trenchless Technology over almost fifty years.

Mr Krumins’ involvement in the trenchless industry began in Brisbane in the 1960s, working as a ‘gofer’ for two senior engineers. After his talent for innovative thinking became apparent, he began managing large bleeding edge sewer renovations. He worked for Brisbane City Council since 1965, moving to QUU when it was established to manage the water of South East Queensland. He has worked in all facets of the water industry, from design, construction and operations to management and planning. He is one of the ASTT’s longest standing Councillors, serving as the Queensland Councillor since 1994, and is currently the Vice Chair of the ASTT.

The PotY Award

Mr Krumins said the award was humbly received, and in accepting the award he recalled all of the people that contributed to the trenchless achievements throughout his 46-year career. He credited his managers, peers and terrific work teams for the most memorable and outstanding feats that he has been a part of, calling them “the icing of his professional career.”

These exciting projects included the world's first spiral reline of a sewer by Danby Ltd, the largest slipline in the Southern Hemisphere and the deepest Insituform reline in world.

Predictions for the future of trenchless

Mr Krumins described the trenchless industry in Australia as transitioning from a utilities and into a contracting fraternity, without great influence from consultants. He said this is perhaps a shortcut to the future, where a one-stop shop of highly skilled and experienced firms provide value for money solutions to utilities, developers and the mining and broadband-type industries.

When asked about future trends and methods that are creating excitement in the industry, Mr Krumins said he saw great interest at No-Dig Down Under 2011 in papers about a kilometre-plus microtunnel with no intermediate pits, and the micro-surgery for supplying connections. He said this certainly created a buzz when thinking of broadband and new property connections.

Issues facing the industry

In terms of the current issues facing the industry, Mr Krumins said new trenchless projects are currently being held back due to lack of experienced purchasers of trenchless projects. Additionally, a slight gap by the industry in project capability creates risk-based costings, rather than the creation of a price that is based on experience. However, Mr Krumins said this gap is closing.

In terms of technology, he said growth is needed to reduce costs of projects. For installations, this could be the use of directional drilling for longer and larger projects, similar to what is achieved in the oil industry, where directional drilling can be used up to 12 km. For rehabilitation this could include techniques like live-relining without a bypass, and the feedback loop from asset managers to technical standards owners being improved so that utilities can make the move to prevent rather than cure.

Ultimately, Mr Krumins believes all the cards are stacked in favour of Trenchless Technology. Ageing assets have to be relined, relayed, duplicated or upsized in already existing structures (or ‘brownfield’ areas), where authority does not tolerate interruptions of life by excavations. All assets in new areas (or ‘greenfield’ areas) similarly have a strong environmental approach, and the days of bulldozing through untouched forests to lay a small pipe are now gone.

New materials have also been a positive for the industry, enabling things that could not be done 20-years ago to become standard practice. Additionally, it is in the industry’s favour that Australia cannot export infrastructure projects overseas.

Andy on retiring

While Mr Krumins is retiring this year, he states that his involvement with Trenchless Technology is still as engaged as ever, and he is continuing to give advice to industry. He plans to use his midcareer break to travel and catch up on things in life that have been put off.

Will Mr Krumins return to working in the industry again? “The career break will see if I can live without the excitement of achieving new things in the engineering and no-dig field…and then we’ll see.”