Another one from construction industry newsletter.
Monday, 18 December 2006

CONSTRUCTION crews for water infrastructure company SunWater have laid the final length of pipe in the 218km Burdekin–Moranbah pipeline, which will feed water to Queensland’s booming coal mining industry.

McConnell Dowell Constructors (Aust) were SunWater’s construction contractor for the pipeline.

Minister for Natural Resources and Water Craig Wallace said workers had battled extreme heat, rugged terrain, isolation and drought to construct one of the largest water pipelines in Queensland’s history.

Wallace said the company had made good on its promise to deliver the $270 million pipeline phase of the project before Christmas.

“A pipedream turned into a reality – ahead of time and on budget,” Wallace said.

“On behalf of the Beattie Government, I want to say ‘good on you’ to 320 construction crews which worked 12-hour days on this nation-building project.

“SunWater crews have literally rewritten the book on pipe laying with one crew of six men laying up to 3km in one day.”

Wallace said construction crews would now focus their efforts on the construction of four large pumping stations that will be needed to pump water to the parched Bowen Basin.

The pumping stations are expected to have water flowing by April 2007.

Six mining companies – BMA Coal, Macarthur Coal, Carborough Downs Coal, Isaac Plains Coal, Rio Tinto Coal Australia and Excel Coal – entered into an agreement with SunWater to cover the cost of the project via water usage charges over the next 20 years.

In total, the project will deliver 17,000 megalitres of water per year to the Bowen Basin, with the potential to increase capacity by a further 6000ML annually.

The project involved construction crews joining more than 20,000 lengths of pipe weighing 3.6 tonnes each, with the help of 20 30t excavators needed to dig the trenches along the route and the pouring of nearly 48,000t of concrete.

More than 2000 truck trips were made from Brisbane to deliver pipes and a fleet of 40 four-wheel drives and buses were used to ferry workers to locations along the pipeline route.