This follows the signing of contracts with the Spanish-led consortium to build the $A955 million project and operate it for 25 years.
The companies making up the Southern SeaWater Alliance are Tecnicas Reunidas and Valoriza Agua, in cooperation with AJ Lucas and WorleyParsons.
The Water Corporation has a role within the alliance to ensure the delivery of the facility meets the long term needs for Western Australia’s sustainable water future.
Construction on the 30 km water pipeline is also expected to begin shortly. The water pipeline, which will run between Binningup and Harvey, links the plant to the Integrated Water Supply Scheme. The planned pipeline will join another major pipeline running to the Tamworth water reservoir.
Construction of the plant is expected to continue for the next two years and include a workforce of up to 500 workers.
In addition, Perth’s Seawater Desalination Plant at Kwinana has reached a major milestone with more than 100 billion litres of water reaching customers’ taps following its commissioning in early 2007.
The desalination plant required four 1,800 mm tunnels under major railways, roads and Western Power infrastructure. The last crossing passed under the Kwinana Freeway and totalled 110 metres at 2,150 mm diameter and involved crossing under the existing south and north lanes and works for the South Metro rail extension. The tunnels, constructed by D.J. & M.B. MacCormick Civil Engineering contractors, were completed in mid-2006.
Water Corporation Chief Executive Sue Murphy said that Australia’s first major desalination plant had well and truly lived up to expectations and was now destined to play a major role for years into the future by consistently supplying about 17 per cent of the drinking water, to be used by three quarters of the Western Australian community.
The plant was built by a consortium led by the French-based international desalination company, Degremont and is operated by Degremont and the Corporation.
Mrs Murphy said it was also very pleasing that along with the water production milestone the operations and maintenance team that keeps the plant running 24 hours a day was also celebrating more than 1,290 days without a lost time injury since late November 2006, when the first water was produced to begin the commissioning phase.
“There is no doubt that the success of our desalination plant triggered plans to build similar facilities in several other parts of Australia and local and international interest remains very high.”
Mrs Murphy said the plant had also demonstrated in its first two years that it could operate with no impacts on the environment.
“An enormous amount of effort and science was put in to ensuring that there would be no environmental impacts through the operation of our plant,” she said.
“It is satisfying that this work has been entirely successful and in fact has provided us with invaluable additional knowledge that we will now put to good use in the construction and operation of the new desalination plant in the south west.”
For more informationo n the trenchless aspects of desalination projects please click here.