Rangedale’s Rehabilitation and Renewals team offers efficient and effective ways to rehabilitate pipelines and structures through the use of trenchless technology. Trenchless Australasia sat down with operations manager Josh Challis to talk about what makes this division a success story.
Rangedale operations manager Josh Challis said the backbone of the business is family. And with family can come challenges.
However, at Rangedale, the tight-knit operation, wide range and large-scale services is what Challis and the Kermeen family pride themselves on.
“We pride ourselves on being a solution for modern day problems,” he said.
“We don’t turn our noses away at jobs too big or too small. We just want to provide a quality service to the industry.”
Challis said a number of projects illustrated Rangedale’s success when it came to rehabilitation and renewals using key techniques and services.
“At the minute we are working on a very large-scale private project in North Melbourne involving the building of a school and social housing,” he said.
Such a monumental project inevitably comes with its challenges, but the team at Rangedale has no problem overcoming them.
“The relining of existing assets involves key challenges such as accessing private property,” Challis said.
“Obviously, water authorities or councils have assets in people’s backyards, and we need to make sure that we can plan and get the job done.
“Timely for one, but we also need to minimise the effect on the residents. Access is a big thing in projects like this.”
Challis said another inherent challenge involved in relining projects is sharing the worksite with other trades.
However, for the Rehabilitations and Renewals division, there’s no such thing as an insurmountable challenge, if there’s excellent planning beforehand.
Rangedale put a lot of effort and emphasis into planning, with the process being a team effort.
“We get our supervisors or crew leaders to go out and check sites and we also get them to try and arrange access so that we can give people as much notice as possible in order to streamline the whole process,” Challis said.
“It’s not about what we’re doing tomorrow. It’s about what we’re doing for the week ahead or even up to two weeks.”
For Challis, Rangedale’s Rehabilitation and Renewals division’s added value is its ability to offer services to its clients through its five main services, including relining services, structural point repair, including Smartlock junction repair, Latseal for grinding and trimming, robotics and house or property connection (HCB) lining and patching.
Relining services
For the relining services, the team focuses on UV cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) relining. Rangedale is an industry leader when it comes to rehabilitating circular pipeline assets using this technology, but also box culverts, as well as vertical structures such as manholes.
Localised spot repairs
Localised spot repairs services offered by Rangedale involve the finest Smart Lock technology. It provides a structural no-dig point repair, instantly without the need to wait for curing of a liner. This expandable and self-locking technology leaves Rangedale’s clients with a smooth-bore stainless steel sleeve, which combines with the additional fiberglass woven matt.
Junction repairs / Latseal
The Rangedale’s Rehabilitation and Renewals team is also a pro with junction liners. Its installation finishes the relining process, creating a permeant structural seal at the point where the property connection branch meets the mainline. The team’s junction lining system can also be used to repair a damaged or broken junction.
Robotics
The Rangedale squad also relies on extensive use of robotics to grind and /or trim intrusions or cracks / holes in the pipeline to be rehabilitated, repaired, or cleared obstructions. Among the many benefits that robots provide is their ability to allow work to be done from the manhole / pit saving costly digging of shafts for repair.
HCB
Finally, Rangedale’s HCB lining and patching service is for relining houses or property connection branches. This allows clients to avoid costly and often disruptive excavation. A fiberglass structural CIPP liner is infused with silicate resin ensuring maximum structural integrity. The installation process is fast making it extremely cost effective.
House or property branches are often installed under driveways, footpaths, landscaped areas, and or paved surfaces. Avoiding excavation over these areas reduces the cost and disruption to property owners while increasing safety by removing the risk associated with working near underground services such as electrical, gas, water, and telecommunications.
“Whether it’s sewer in properties or major projects where there are defective pipes , we, the RRR team are always on the job, always offering a solution to our clients,” Challis said.
This article featured in the August edition of Trenchless Australasia.
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