Work on the project includes a new 4.25 km sewer main southeast of Brisbane, between Wecker Road, Mansfield, and Cadogan Street, Carindale.
The existing Bulimba Creek Trunk Sewer comprises 62 km of sewer pipes ranging in diameter from 375 mm to 1,650 mm and provides water and sewerage services to more than 158,000 customers.
Mid-tier infrastructure provider Abergeldie Complex Infrastructure Pty Ltd and civil engineering contractors Obayashi Corporation formed Abergeldie-Obayashi Joint Venture (JV), which was awarded the contract to design and construct the Stage 2 upgrade.
The project is utilising microtunnelling in order to reduce the impact on residents and the environment, with most above ground works concentrated at entry and exit shafts.
A tunnel boring machine (TBM) is boring a 1,500 mm diameter tunnel, while a jacking machine pushes the new sewer pipes in behind it, to be pulled through as the TBM advances.
Since August 2016, an exit shaft has been constructed at Edwards Reserve off Tones Road in Mansfield, two TBM entry shafts were constructed – one at the Allen Innes Oval in Mansfield and one in Carindale – and the TBM has tunnelled between the Allen Innes Oval entry and the Edwards Reserve exit.
At the end of July, the TBM will be brought to a launch shaft on the corner of Scrub and Pine Mountain Roads, Carindale. The TBM will tunnel 852m, to date, the longest tunnel drive of a machine this size, to the exit shaft in Edwards Reserve.
There will then be an additional three tunnel drives totalling 2236m on completion of this drive.
Stage 1 and 1A of the Bulimba Creek upgrade were completed in 2004-2006 and 2011-2013 in Mansfield, Wishart, Eight Mile Plains and MacGregor.
Stage 2 is expected to be completed by mid-2018.
For more information visit the Queensland Urban Utilities website.
If you have a project you would like featured in Trenchless Australasia contact Editor Nick Lovering at nlovering@gs-press.com.au
Media supplied by Queensland Urban Utilities