The 2005 Conference began in a relaxed manner on the Tuesday with an Industry Breakfast at the Carlton Hotel, providing delegates with an opportunity to network prior to the formal conference proceedings, as well as listen to two short keynote presentations which focused on the potential to partner in the water and Trenchless Technology industries. The breakfast was followed by the annual enviroNZ golf tournament, which was held at the Murawai Golf Course.

Following the golf tournament, golfers and other delegates gathered at the Aotea Centre for a welcome reception. NZWWA President Raveen Jaduram declared the Conference to be officially open and attendees had the opportunity to check out the 100 stands on display as part of the exhibition in an informal setting.

The technical program got underway on Wednesday morning with a keynote presentation from ACIL Tasman Chief Executive Nick Morris, the first of three keynotes to be delivered at the Conference.

Nick was the original founder of London Economics in 1986, and of London Economics Australia in 1987. He was also Chairman of Swift Solutions, a software consultancy; a Director of IPA Ltd, a Scottish engineering consultancy; and a Director of Intellectual Capital Ltd.

Nick’s presentation covered current debates about water policy in New Zealand in the context of recent reform experience in other countries, with a particular focus on Australia.

This overview of the approaches to reform adopted covered market-based approaches to allocation of water resources, pricing and cost recovery and institutional arrangements and the role of private sector participation in the industry.

The other keynote presentations for the Conference came from Samuel Ariaratnam and Jerry Biberstine.

Samuel is a member of the Board of Directors of the North American Society for Trenchless Technology and is chair of the Underground Construction Committee, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He is also a Construction Division Executive member of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) and Construction Research Council (ASCE).

Samuel is an expert in the methodology and procedures of directional drilling from an academic and expert witness perspective, and was a co-author of the HDD Consortium Best Practices Guidelines.

He has an extensive list of credits in his CV including more than 25 journal publications, 70 conference proceedings and 20 technical reports.

Jerry, meanwhile, is a Senior Environmental Engineer with the National Rural Water Association, USA.

His duties include addressing regulatory development and implementation issues at the national level, and liaison issues with the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, AWWA, and State/Rural Water relations. Training at state and national association levels is also a major part of his responsibility.

Following Nick’s presentation, delegates moved on to the various papers being delivered within four conference streams. The ASTT stream was kicked of by Samuel Ariaratnam who presented a paper on the Replacement of existing sewer mains using Trenchless pipe bursting. A copy of this paper has been published on page 26.

Chris Breen then spoke on Tunnelling the Browns Bay Peak Flow Wastewater Storage Facility, followed by T Davis who discussed New Jacking Pipe Materials.

Following a break for lunch and viewing of the poster presentations, the ASTT papers continued with Philip McFarlane presenting 3rd Edition of the Pipe Inspection Manual – What this will include, New Zealand councillor Grant Binns discussing 3rd Party Damage – Industry Best Practice/Who pays the bill, which has been published on page 32, and the final presentation of the day on Sewer Investigations – Do we have to become buried in paper? from Steve Apeldoom.

Day Two kicked off with Samuel Ariaratnam’s Iplex Pipelines keynote address. In a wide-ranging paper, Samuel covered the various methods of Trenchless Technology in an impressive amount of detail, given the time allocated to discuss this complex and wide-ranging topic. Trenchless Technologies discussed included pipe bursting, pipe jacking, cured in place pipe rehabilitation and Sam delivered his presentation in a relaxed, light-hearted manner.

Following Samuel’s keynote address, delegates heard Daniel Gamboa discuss Rehabilitation of Large Diameter Pipes – The possibilities continue to expand while Trevor Gossati presented Taking a Bright Idea and Turning it into Reality – The ShieldLiner Story. Following a quick break for morning tea, Gary Budden spoke on CIPP – Unique Applications and Gravity sewer installation as part of the Port Chevalier Sewer Separation Project was discussed by Akram Dilaimi.

The morning’s technical papers were followed by the No-Dig Live demo, which was put on by CitiOperations Senior Projects Manager John Hollingsworth and his team from the Wellington City Council (see box on page 11).

There were no ASTT presentations scheduled for the afternoon, providing ASTT delegates with the opportunity to check out the exhibitors stands, which covered three floors of the Aotea Centre, ahead of the ASTT Annual General Meeting, held later in the afternoon.

The final day of the conference began with Jerry Biberstine’s keynote presentation.

ASTT delegates then moved on to an informal seminar, The practicalities of implementing a sewer rehabilitation project, for the final session of the Conference. The seminar covered problem assessment, project definition, community consultation, investigation works, sewer rehabilitation and results achieved. The seminar was well attended by ASTT delegates and provided the opportunity for attendees to informally (and frankly) discuss various projects they had worked on, the difficulties and challenges of these projects and how these were overcome.

Following the morning sessions, a range of conference awards were presented, including the best exhibition stand awards. First place went to Marley NZ Ltd, second place to Streat Control and Arthur D. Riley & Co were awarded third place.