Deriving from the Gaelic name bóthar, which means road, Bothar specialises in providing engineering solutions to solve complex subsurface construction challenges in most types of ground conditions.
Managing Director and one of the founders Noel Kerr says Bothar has grown from its original two employees in the early 1990s to just under 1000 working globally across the business today.
“At the time the company was predominantly working in Sydney and were outsourcing our subsurface crossings when the concept arose to do the work in house,” Kerr says.
The company initially commenced operating with Bothar Built Auger Boring Machines executing various infrastructure crossings, and within a few years were also operating using Bothar Built Tunnel Boring Machines.
The company built its first Tunnel Boring Machine around 1994 then this milestone was followed by Bothar completing its first major tunnelling project – the Black Street Lang Park drainage project, in Brisbane, Queensland.
Within 10 years, Bothar had established several offices throughout Australia and had become one of Australia’s most skilled and diverse providers of tunnelling solutions.
Leveraging its local expertise, Bothar launched its international operations and expanded into the Middle East in 2010 with offices in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.
It was during that year that the company commenced its first microtunnelling job in Abu Dhabi – 1.7km of 2000 mm diameter for installation of reinforced concrete jacking.
Kerr says in 2011 Bothar was awarded its first project in Kuwait – 22km of various diameter (ranging from 400 mm to 1000 m) for a new sewerage system.
The company further expanded its expertise internationally when it received an investment from an overseas company as part of a plan to further expand the Middle East presence into Qatar in June 2013.
“We executed a number of major projects including the Hunua 4 project in New Zealand, a 506 metre flood relief tunnel in Brisbane, the Al Sowa major sea bed crossing in the UAE, and over 80 coal-seam gas export pipeline crossings for major CSG-to-LNG owners,” Kerr says.
“During 2013 we also completed our first microtunnelling job in Doha, Qatar. Since then, Bothar has significantly accelerated its geographically-focused growth through strategic acquisitions and organic growth.”
Going from strength to strength, Bothar hit another milestone by acquiring Coleman Tunnelling Africa (rebranded to Coleman Microtunnelling), through which it launched operations in South and Greater Africa.
Kerr says the company’s presence internationally did not stop there, expanding into Singapore in 2017, followed by acquiring Innovative Pipeline Crossings (IPC, recently rebranded to Bothar Inc.) in Canada in 2018. “Here we started to form a beachhead for our planned expansion into North America,” he says. “Bothar now boasts a fleet of 74 specialist machines that provide engineering solutions on projects facilitating social benefits to millions all the while minimising any environmental impact.”
Kerr says one of the key aspects to the company’s success is it offers a mix of its own equipment and supplied equipment. Bothar is believed to have the largest Herrenknecht microtunnelling fleet in the world.
“Bothar’s end-to-end tunnelling solutions set it apart from its competitors in the market, further strengthened with the addition of Direct Pipe®, shaft construction and pipe manufacturing capabilities in the last three years,” he says.
Being in an industry where they are always faced with operational challenges, Kerr says continuous increases in technology has boosted performance and safety overall.
Bothar’s commitment to innovation is demonstrated through its investment in research and development and the results that are achieved in the field with its in-house technology. A recent example being the Canopy Tube project on the Cross River Rail project in Brisbane, Queensland whereby Bothar’s expertise was tasked with the installation of 19 x 102m (DN500) canopy tubes for the Boggo Road tunnel. Bothar developed an innovative solution to install canopy tubes with pinpoint accuracy without the ability to install a retrieval shaft whilst ensuring the ground was fully supported at all times. Bothar designed a specialized bespoke bidirectional retractable cutting head which had never previously been utilized on this size installation. The company’s Bothar Built fleet of tunnel boring machines are continually reviewed for potential performance improvement or to solve a particular client construction challenge.
Kerr says the company has developed the enviable reputation of being a “can do” contractor renowned for the successful delivery of difficult projects whilst maintaining excellent operational performance.
“These strengths coupled with some of the best personnel in the industry worldwide (from the first two employees 30 years ago to a workforce of just under1000) and an in-depth understanding of the unique challenges of each project have helped us to leverage our current status as a market leading, innovative multinational tunnelling contractor,” he says.
For more information visit
botharboring.com