This consisted of laying approximately 140 km of “˜tiger’ polyethylene pipe of various sizes from 63 mm diameter up to a diameter of 250 mm.
Bilfinger Berger Services (BBS) was formed in 2005 and incorporates the history and capabilities of Abigroup Asset Services, Cathodic Protection Systems (CPS) and Simon Engineering. Offering cost effective, diverse, and high performance engineering, construction and maintenance solutions, one of the company’s core capabilities lies within the provision of solutions and services for the Australian Gas Industry.
“Bilfinger Berger Services includes over 2,000 employees in Australia and 55,000 globally. We are committed to providing our clients with innovative solutions that meet their specific needs. Within the Tasmanian market, our business has grown enormously. We recently established our office and workshop in the Hobart eastern suburb of Cambridge and we employ over 25 highly skilled technicians and a number of contractors who specialise in gas construction, maintenance, and operations,” Graeme Mitchell, BBS Gas Construction Manager, explained.
Bilfinger Berger Services has worked with a range of major clients within the Australian Gas Industry including Powerco in Tasmania.
The Corrosion Control group of Bilfinger Berger Services, formerly CPS, has also played a major role for Powerco in Tasmania when it was selected to provide cathodic protection design, material supply, installation, monitoring services and a coating defect survey on the steel sections of the high pressure system. The steel sections consisted of 27 km of 200 mm pipeline in Hobart, 10 km of 150 mm pipeline in Launceston and 8 km of 150 mm pipeline in Devonport. All pipelines were coated with extruded polyethylene (YJ) or Fusion Bonded Epoxy (FBE) coating. Assorted other buried metallic structures such as casings and regulators were also cathodically protected. Horizontal directional drilled sections of the Derwent River were also tested for coating quality.
Due to the relatively short lengths of well coated pipeline, a galvanic anode system was selected for the Powerco steel network, and, as a 50 year life was specified, 50 kg magnesium anodes were selected to be installed.
It was discovered during the design process that, as large sections of the supply pipelines paralleled HV powerlines, additional AC mitigation protection would be necessary in addition to the specified standard surge protection. This included the supply and installation of zinc anodes and ribbon and necessitated the use of lockable test point boxes.
Practical completion of the cathodic protection system was reached in March last year, and the project is now in the monitoring stage.
“The Powerco project combined with the completion of the 2002 cathodic protection installation on Duke Energy’s (now Alinta) onshore 400 km Tasmanian gas pipeline, means BBS has a strong reputation for reliable and accurate cathodic protection projects in Tasmania,” said Geoff Rippingale, Corrosion Control Group Manager.
Andrew Bambridge, Powerco’s Build and Asset Manager agreed, saying “CPS was selected to carry out the design, installation and on going monitoring works because of their proven expertise and experience here in Tasmania and we have been very happy with the service that has been provided.”