John DeGrazia found himself prominently involved with the trenchless industry after his employer, Melbourne Water, began applying Trenchless Technology to an increasing amount of projects in order to avoid environmental impacts within the densely urban Melbourne location.
“Having been employed with Melbourne Water for some time I was lucky to be provided the opportunity and exposure to the trenchless industry early on,” Mr DeGrazia said.
“There were a number of projects where Trenchless Technology was being considered and I was fortunate at the time to be involved.”
Mr DeGrazia became the ASTT Victoria Councillor in 2000 as a result of his increasing involvement within the growing trenchless industry in Victoria.
He remembers fondly the 2004 national conference where it was announced that Great Southern Press was going to be the publisher of the Trenchless Australasia magazine.
Mr DeGrazia said that during that time the initial technology was a great foundation for the future developments.
“The technologies at the time were reasonably well established and constantly being refined, just as they are today.
“The users, suppliers and operators of the technology were, and still are, passionate about the industry they work in, so I would expect that there will be continual improvements in the products that the trenchless industry provides in the future,” Mr DeGrazia said.
The early days of Trenchless Australasia saw pivotal developments concerning education and promotion of Trenchless Technology.
Mr DeGrazia recalls the initial push to expose university students to Trenchless Technology applications.
“I remember at the time there was a push to raise the profile of the trenchless industry beyond the areas where it had already been used.
There was also a focus on getting the young graduates well versed in the benefits and uses of trenchless,” he said.
“A CD for distribution and use at universities was developed by Jonathan O’Brien back in 2005 and was made available to educational institutions to incorporate into their curriculums; a great early initiative applied to promote Trenchless Technology,” Mr DeGrazia said.
Today, and since leaving his ASTT Victoria Councillor post in 2005, Mr DeGrazia said he is optimistic about the state of the industry, yet there are always current issues that can be key areas of focus for industry figures to focus on.
“From a Trenchless Technology user’s perspective, I would say that the current issues for the industry would be to demonstrate the technology’s value for money across a range of areas, not only in the construction areas, but also in terms of societal impact and environmental impacts.”
Mr DeGrazia said it would be good if the value of these benefits could be expressed more prominently, to make it easier for the end user and broader community to realise its true value.
Reflecting on Trenchless Australasia’s ten year anniversary, Mr DeGrazia said the magazine remains a valuable resource for the sector.
“The magazine has evolved into a good resource for information and shows some great case studies of where the technology has been used,” he said.
“I quite often send the articles around to a number of people to highlight areas of new developments and opportunities that could be considered for future projects,” Mr DeGrazia added.
As the investigator and project initiator for a range of projects in the sewerage and drainage pipelines area, Mr DeGrazia today still has the opportunity to be involved in a range of options for fixing pipeline network issues.
Melbourne Water’s assets are predominantly large in their diameter, so most of the projects are large and complex and keep John DeGrazia busy and active within the trenchless industry today.