Coliban Water has wrapped up its largest program of ‘hidden’ water and sewer main renewals.
Across the 2023/2024 financial year, the utility invested approximately $8.5 million across the region.
Coliban Water chief officer assets and operations Danny McLean said the program consisted of 16.8km of water main renewals and 25km of sewer main renewals.
“Most of us don’t think about the infrastructure required to deliver water to our taps or carry our used water away from our homes,” McLean said.
“But these ‘hidden assets’ have been the focus of a large-scale renewal program.”
McLean said Coliban Water’s crews renewed water mains at 61 sites across central Victoria, including Bealiba where 970m of mains were replaced, and Specimen Gully Road in Castlemaine where 1.3km of mains were replaced.
The utility had also introduced several new innovations to ensure the work completed was sustainable, with work at the Specimen Gully Road project using 100 per cent recycled drill water.
“Our delivery partner, R&R McClure, employed leading-edge technology to reuse the drill water circulated between specialist rock drills, saving almost 50,000 litres of water, roughly equivalent to the daily water consumption of 240 customers,” he said.
“The team also reused sand at the site, with approximately 20 cubic metres of sand extracted during works able to be reused around the pipes during reinstatement.”
McLean said over the past financial year, 396 sewer mains were also renewed, with a particular focus on Echuca where the age of some of its sewer mains and recent blockages due to silt and debris build-up led to the area being prioritised for attention.
“We’ve completed 6.4km of sewer main renewals in Echuca, with several relined and cleared out so they operate more efficiently,” he said.
“In Bendigo, sewer main replacement works around Rosalind Park found some sewers were up to 80 per cent blocked.”
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