A retired Trenchless Technology expert, Bill is known within the industry as ‘the’ go-to person for Sydney’s underworld. Bill built up an intimate knowledge of Sydney’s sewerage system from trailing the pipes himself; back before CCTV cameras, this is how the Sydney Water Board got things done.
Sydney Water Board
Bill grew up in Collaroy, New South Wales, and attended Sydney University where he got his Bachelor in Civil Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Geology and Mathematics. As part of his third year, he was placed with the Sydney Water Board in 1946 on a temporary basis for six months to gain practical experience. He began working full time in January 1948 and spent seven years in the Research Branch under Fred Venables, engaged mostly on model testing at the Manly hydraulic testing station.
Bill went to head office and spent seven years in the design branch of the board then transferred over to sewer maintenance. “Eventually, the trenchless activities came to the notice of myself, and I think I can reasonably acclaim to be involved in the first trenchless lining job in Australia, which was done in Camperdown,” Bill said.
They also did two other jobs at the time with the Water Board using fibre glass segments in two bigger sewers. The first was Rocky Creek Submain, located in Sydney’s North Shore, an oviform sewer that was not in good order.
“We installed fibreglass sections in it which are still there,” Bill said.
The other job was the repair of sections of the Abattoir Submain, located out in Homebush, which had been attacked by chemicals.
“It was attacked by hydrogen sulphide and other chemicals. Rocky Creek, on the other hand, was not subject to gas attack but subject to erosion. It was on a steep grade and very fast-flowing.”
The last sewer inspection Bill did was approximately six years ago.
“Not too bad for someone who was 79 at the time,” Bill said.
Especially since some inspections, once he entered the manhole, could take longer than five hours.
During his career Bill hit the 3,000 mark of sewer inspections. “I think I can reasonably claim to know the main sewers in the Sydney system better than the Water Board does. Having been through some of them several times, you do learn things.”
During his employment Bill represented the Sydney Board on two major Standing Committees involving interstate authorities. Bill served as the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Sewerage Systems, and up until his retirement he was a member of the Technical Standing Committee on Hydrogen Sulphide Corrosion.
In November 1986, after 39 years, Bill officially retired from the Sydney Water Board. However, he continues to work as a consultant when needed.
Since retiring, Bill has provided his trenchless expertise on a number of projects and has written over 70 reports.
Mr Goodman goes to Europe
In 1984, Bill went to the International Conference on the Planning, Construction, Maintenance and Operations of Sewerage Systems held at Reading University in the UK. The conference, which was attended by delegates from 21 countries, had 35 papers presented, 11 of which were from overseas participants, including Bill.
Representing the Water Board, Bill presented a paper at the conference on Sydney Sewerage, which was well received.
“The first conference was Reading and subsequent to that, the ISTT was set up. I don’t know whether I was the first Australian to join ISTT or not, I may well have been, I know my membership number was 48.
“In due course I was transferred automatically to the ASTT, and I am still a member today,” Bill said.
After the conference, Bill was sent over to Holland for two reasons. One was the Coopetanche process at Delfzijl on the North Coast of Holland. Humes had obtained the Australian franchise for this process and was marked under the name “Duraliner”, however this process hasn’t been used in Australia for over 30 years.
He also went to the Delft Sewage Treatment Plant for a political enquiry into whether they should introduce secondary treatment at North Head Treatment and Submarine Outfall development works in Sydney. Bill said that nothing really came of it because the reasons they were doing it in Holland was different than in Sydney.
Trenchless over the years
When we asked Bill what lessons he has learned over the years he said it was not an easy question to answer.
“There are various advantages to trenchless work – referring to the renovation side. It’s economical in general, its faster, can usually be done in a fraction of the time and causes much less disruption. The system in many instances will last longer if they replace the sewer, but that of course depends on how it was replaced and what with, perhaps more importantly.
“In Perth for example, because of the high level of hydrogen sulphide over there, they protect their new sewers with plastic typically. Whereas, in general, we didn’t,” Bill said.
He said that there has always been trouble with the concrete pipes, and it is probably an accolade to the builders back in the 1870s and 1880s that the brick sewers they built back then will probably long out-last the concrete sewers built 50 years later.
Sewer repair a public affair
One of the major changes Bill has seen is the increase of OH&S with the projects.
Bill said that years ago they used to let the public into the tank stream for inspection, something that is definitely not as common today.
“We had Dick Smith, his wife and daughters go through the tank stream years ago as well as a few parliamentarians and all sorts of people.”
Other interesting developments Bill has seen over the last years are projects that Sydney Water is currently undertaking.
“It’s only basically in the last 20 years what I’ve seen and read. I’ve been retired from the Water Board coming up to 25 years, so they’ve done some interesting jobs.”
Big projects, such as the North Georges River Submain (NGRS), were actually inspected by Bill a number of years ago before work commenced.
Bill vs CCTV
Bill says that you can observe better than the camera can. “That’s a lesson I found hard to convince the people of the Water Board. The cameras will tell you so much, but what you see is much better.”
A classic example, Bill said, was about a year after he retired. He got a call from one of the engineers he had worked with asking him to come out to have a look at a problem out in Epping. It was a 300–400 mm sewer.
“He said, ‘we’ve put the CCTV through it’, and he gave me the video. I ran it, and I thought, that doesn’t look right. So I rang him up and said I wanted to go down and look at the field site and go down the manhole. So we arranged accordingly.”
The deduction they had made from the CCTV footage was that the concrete pipes were in poor order and the vitrified clay (VC) pipes were in good working order.
“I went down there and had a look and finished up and told him that they had it back to front. The VC pipes were cracked, which they thought were only cobwebs, and the concrete pipes were in good order.
“It was a good lesson in the shortcomings of CCTV,” Bill said.
On using trenchless
Bill said “I’ve been in favour of trenchless all along. The use of more modern techniques and the development of new processes and materials is important.”
In regards to selling things to people, Bill says it takes time and that it is things like exhibitions at conferences that result in converts to trenchless.
“People come along and think, ‘Oh it’s in my backyard I better go have a look,’ and realise that its a bit more than a fly by night thing.”
Although he has not been extremely active in the trenchless industry, Bill recognises the importance of research and development in the industry.
“I think further development of materials, to improve materials and improve techniques is needed to increase applications of trenchless,” Bill said.
Giving Lewiston extra strength
When asked the most exciting, and coincidently one of the biggest, projects he has worked on Bill said the Lewiston Aqueduct. Working on the 4.6 ft x 3 ft Oviform, it was one of the most unusual and caused all sorts of odd problems.
It is a steel oviform aqueduct, and it started to leak about 25 years previously, reaching the stage where it was looking rather unsightly with rust streaks down the side.
“It was decided it had to be renovated and we didn’t want to interfere with the shape of it and we finally got it lined. It was interesting; the lining consisted of a steel liner and then a fibre glass liner to give it additional strength,” Bill said.
In due course the lining was complete and then the aqueduct was patched with original steel and re-painted and, to the best of Bill’s knowledge, it is still in good order.
Bill also said this was probably his most rewarding project.
“It was back in the day when I was an engineer for contract for the renovation jobs and let out to various firms.”
Another interesting job was the renovation of the Johnson’s Creek and White’s Cree aqueduct at Annandale on the Bondi sewer. This was first use of reinforced concrete in a sewer in Australia.
A bit about Bill
Currently residing in Sydney’s North, Bill keeps busy with four children, 13 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
