Trevor Gosatti is a long-term member of the ASTT, having served as the President from 2009 to 2015.
Since stepping down from the position last year he has continued his service to the trenchless community as the ASTT’s WA Councillor.
What’s the industry like in WA at the moment?
During the mining boom, there was a lot of horizontal directional drilling (HDD) going on in the northwest and there were relining programs going on in Perth, due to growth within the city.
It has slowed down in the last couple of years, but there are still some works underway. The Water Corporation is in the process of doing a relining program at the moment.
Although, that’s the only one, whereas in years gone by there were three programs at running simultaneously.
The Water Corporation has also just started doing some infill sewerage programs; there’s two or three jobs out there at the moment and there’s some microtunnelling involved in those.
When infill sewerage started back in 1995, probably only one or two per cent of those jobs used Trenchless Technology. I would say that number is now closer to 60-70 per cent.
That tells you the success of improvements in the technology, the price of it, and its economic and social benefits.
Are there any major trenchless projects happening in your state?
Rob Carr is managing an infill sewerage project at City Beach at the moment, which would have more microtunnelling in it than ever before.
A lot of the lines on that project weren’t specified as being trenchless, but have since been updated to involve trenchless methods.
In Western Australia there’s been a program over recent years of putting underground power in through Western Power ‒ that’s been a huge program for installing the power lines from the poles to underground, which used a lot of HDD.
AJ Lucas also did a number of jobs on Barrow Island, some very tricky long bores, of a large diameter, which no one in the world has ever done.
Will any of the government-funded infrastructure projects utilise Trenchless Technology?
Absolutely. The Forrestfield Airport Link is a great example. Rather than going over the top, their first option now is to look at tunnelling everything.
And even if the tunnelling is too large to be classed as trenchless ‒ with these tunnels there are offshoots, and a requirement for microtunnelling and other trenchless work.
It’s interesting now that even on the Roe 8 Project they are talking about tunnelling the next section, if it ends up going ahead.
The government has worked out that it’s actually better for them to do it like that, environmentally and everything – all the benefits are there.
They’re slowly working out what the rest of the world already knows; trenchless is a better way to go. It has less impact on the environment, the built environment and it’s not as expensive as it used to be.
Not to mention the competence of the people doing it is better.
How will Perth’s continued increase in population and ‘urban sprawl’ affect the industry?
There’ll be more and more need for Trenchless Technology. Perth is renowned for its sprawling urban area, but there will be a push for trenchless if the government starts to make better use of the existing suburbs.
Trenchless will also be important when looking at upsizing existing infrastructure.
For example, if you’ve got a 6-inch sewer pipe and you’re connecting more and more houses to that system, it’s going to have to be upgraded to a 9-inch.
Rather than dig it up you can pipe burst and put a bigger pipe through there.
So trenchless becomes more and more in play for those sorts of things. I think trenchless will be an important player in the development of new suburbs, but also as more people are populated closer to the CBD and have to utilise existing infrastructure.
This article was featured in the December edition of Trenchless Australasia. To view the magazine on your PC, Mac, tablet, or mobile device, click here.
Want to get more involved in the Trenchless Technology industry in your state or territory? Contact ASTT Secretary Jeff Pace to find out more about membership: jeffpace@astt.com.au