The Southern Regional Water Pipeline (SRWP) from Mt Crosby to Molendinar on the Gold Coast is a regional infrastructure project designed with reverse flow capability to help manage the existing and long term water requirements of Brisbane City, Ipswich City, Logan City, Gold Coast City and Beaudesert Shire councils, in southeast Queensland.
It is being constructed by the SRWP Alliance, which comprises McConnell Dowell, Abigroup, Kellogg Brown & Root and SRWP Company. The alliance is responsible for land acquisition, design, approvals and procurement, construction and commissioning. Construction has been fast-tracked with land access, design, approvals, procurement all still in progress. The mild steel cement lined (MSCL) pipe ranges from 960 mm to 1,290 mm in diameter. In addition to constructing the SRWP, the Alliance is also responsible for constructing a segment of the 800 mm diameter Western Corridor Recycled Water (WCRW) pipeline which traverses the same route on part of the SRWP alignment.
This $800 million plus project was granted Significant Project Status by the Queensland government in September 2005. The SRWP project is part of the Queensland government’s drought strategy and regional water grid initiative.
The Alliance began construction in October 2006 and at the time of The Australian Pipeliner’s visit, approximately 22 km of pipe had been laid for the SRWP and just over 6 km of pipeline for the WCRW pipeline.
The SRWP will carry drinking water and the majority of the 96 km pipeline will be buried approximately one metre underground. Five pump stations (Swanbank, Bundamba, Chambers Flat, Coomera and Molendinar), and four reservoir tanks (two at North Beaudesert, Stapylton and Molendinar) will also be constructed to distribute and maintain water levels.
Work is ongoing on multiple fronts to ensure that the strict timelines are met. The project also includes a number of microtunnels, four of which will be river crossings and four through hilly terrain, in order to maintain the necessary hydraulic grade. In addition, there are up to 12 elevated crossings including one over the Brisbane River and numerous auger bores required for road and other crossings.
Work was underway preparing the launch pit for the crossing of the Bremer River. The microtunnelling will involve sophisticated tunnel boring technology to meet the challenges and variety of ground conditions that the crossings present. Two tunnel boring machines have been imported from Herrenknecht in Germany to complete the work.
Safety management is a major focus of the Alliance, thereby ensuring the safety of those working on the project and also the public. In addition, stringent environmental and community liaison guidelines and practices have been adopted to minimise impacts over the route of the pipeline.
The project remains on track to be completed by the end of 2008.