Cradle Mountain Water (CMW) covers an area of 22,500 square kilometres, with mountains, rainforests, rivers and seasides all a feature of the landscape. Across this area, CMW services approximately 88,000 residents, owning more than 1,300 km of water pipelines and 1,100 km of sewer mains.

Trenchless Technology and CMW

According to Phil Benson, Manager Renewals Capex Planning, Trenchless Technology has played an increasingly important role to CMW. The organisation has recently started a program to collect the latest information on assets within their sewer pump stations, and uses CCTV to condition assess targeted areas of their underground pipelines. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is also used to map findings. There are plans to run a criticality test over the linear assets and from this data CMW will be able to produce a forward renewals program.

Current works

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The current repair and inspection program is seeing work undertaken on a number of key assets. The Paloona Trunk Main Renewal project involves sleeving 500 m of a 525AC class A pipe with a polyethylene pipe. The Rosebery Infiltration and Ingress Project is using CCTV to investigate two suburbs of Rosebery to find the source of large stormwater ingresses. The Sheffield Infiltration and Ingress Project: CCTV is being used in a number of areas in Sheffield to identify storm water ingress and poor connections, this information will be used to program upgrades and renewals. Lastly, the Ambleside Sewer Upgrade is using pipe cracking to upgrade 500 m of 150 mm sewer pipe to 225 mm.

In the coming year, CMW plans to inspect 50 km of their linear assets, and has budgeted $A3.5 million for the replacement of assets. This program will expand as condition assessment and infiltration programs develop, and over the course of 2011, CMW will develop a five-year strategy for the inspection and repair of our waste water linear assets.

Currently, there is a large amount of storm water entering CMW’s waste water systems during rain events, which is costly to manage and treat. The organisation is currently developing an assessment program to find the sources of the infiltration and will then program the repair and replacement of these assets.

Technology selection

CMW employs a wide range of Trenchless Technologies, including CCTV, sewer pipe lining, pipe cracking, pipe pigging and directional digging. When it comes to selecting the right technology for the job, CMW utilises their membership of various water industry associations. According to Mr Benson, “These associations provide research and collaboration from within our industry and offer guidance for making decisions on the most suitable technology for the project. They also facilitate asset management programs that provide workshops, knowledge transfer and guidelines which assist us in the selection of particular technology.”

Phil also says that industry magazines also keep the team at CMW up to date on what is new, who is doing what and how. “These magazines are important in keeping our industry informed, especially in areas outside our own focus as the technology may be adapted to suit us,” says Phil.

Challenges for the future

When CMW was established in 2009, the first major project for the organisation was to bring together asset registers from the nine councils and bulk water supplier from which CMW was formed, and have these assets valued.

The next major challenge will be to gain an understanding of the condition of these assets, and to develop CMW’s asset renewals program to meet agreed levels of service in a way that maintains customer affordability. Once this knowledge is obtained, the organisation can develop a database which can be used to program the repairs and renewals of their assets, all within budget constraints.

The major challenge for CMW is to ensure assets are able to provide the service which meets or exceeds what is expected by the various regulatory bodies.