A second generation family business although not strictly by the conventional route, Under Road Boring Australia (URBA) brings a wealth of history to its operational footprint.
This incorporates auger boring, microtunnelling and directional drilling across a host of clients, some of whom have been partnering with the business for the best part of four decades.
Based at Grafton in New South Wales and enviably headquartered on the banks of the Clarence River, URBA partners with the likes of John Holland, Downer, Unitywater, Coffs Harbour Council, Toowoomba Regional Council and Ledonne Constructions.
Its most recent project is the Dohles Rocks Intersection north of Brisbane where it is tunnelling under the Bruce Highway. In recent times the business has expanded its capabilities namely through pipe jacking which was identified as an area of opportunity according to owner Michael Austin.
“There doesn’t seem to be too many independent operators around doing it and the bigger guys have got a bit of a monopoly on the market at the moment,” he says.
“There’s an opening we have decided to explore so we’ll see if we can ruffle a few feathers.”
Austin’s father-in-law, Glen Donovan, originally founded the business in 1983. It was his uncle Bill Collier, a respected pioneer of modern trenchless techniques, who was 13 years earlier boring holes for a living, that introduced Donovan to it.
There were also three cousins introduced to the sector by Bill: John Kiddle (Midcoast Under Road Boring) Michael Collier (Colliers Horizontal Boring) and [Dec] Alan Kennedy (Shoalhaven Under Road Boring).
“People who have been in the game a long time will recognise old Bill Collier’s name,” said Austin.
“We’ve been around a while but chose to go under the radar until now”.
This is partly because Donovan, who retired in 2022, worked exclusively with a select group of clients. He never advertised. He relied on word-of-mouth and that was, it turns out, more than enough.
“He didn’t have a website, and he worked with the same few clients and that’s all he ever worked for,” said Austin.
“Glen was of the old school and avoided the headaches associated with too much paperwork and new contracts, so he kept it that way.”
The first thing Austin did, when he took over ownership, was create a website for the company and refurbish the running gear.
There was a lot of it, so it became an ongoing project with upgrades and asset replacements made where appropriate.
Donovan had fabricated all of his own microtunnelling and pipe jacking machines.
These were built inhouse and it’s a legacy that also continues to this day. URBA employs three fulltime staff in the workshop.
The business also keeps plenty of stock on hand. According to Austin, they have spare parts for most everything.
“Because it’s all built inhouse turnaround times for repairs have been minimised and our downtime is negligible,” he said.
“Even if there is a complete machine failure, we can be up and running again within a couple of days such is the inventory we carry.”
He added, “We don’t need to wait for it to come in from overseas.”
With no scarcity of assets to draw from, URBA has a boring machine for every size of jacking pipe that is available.
They jack everything requiring a high axial load capacity from the DN450 Humes S Series right up to the largest 2100 J Series with a machine on hand for anything in between.
The business currently has 20-plus machines on the books. Having that variety of sizes means they don’t encounter many jobs that challenge their limitations.
“The only thing we stay away from at the moment is hard ground,” Austin said.
“We’re more of a soft ground specialist.”
Functionality is key. URBA’s machines are designed to be disassembled quickly, what’s more, in confined spaces.
“Having the ability to pull the gear apart in tight exit pits is an advantage,” said Austin.
“We don’t need a big, long exit pit to do that generally. We can do it in a 2×2-metre hole if need be. I can strip the machine down in parts, in sections. We’ve designed them for the purpose they can split apart in smaller areas.”
In its auger boring operations, URBA has a current capability spanning 300mm steel case up to 1-metre steel case on grade. In soft ground conditions they can bore to 100 metres.
They can dig rock at 30MPa. They also provide steel case for structural support in microtunnelling. The smallest machine is a 406 with up to one-metre diameter steel case.
The microtunnelling and the pipe jacking is all achieved with vacuum extraction.
On the most recent project involving a 90-metre stormwater crossing, it was having the machines fully guided that ensured, at once, the path of the bore alignment for microtunnelling and pipe jacking.
The heritage of the business lives on in an old bed boring machine fitted with a wheel that pushes rods for driveway crossings. Even though the technology has been around before directional drilling, the team at URBA have kept the machine in good condition.
“We still have a crew that does that application and it’s part of our legacy going back to the ‘70s,” said Austin. “Even though we do the big jobs we still do all the small jobs as well.”
Austin started working with the company on and off from 2000. He upped his commitment in 2016 by financially investing in it when he saw an opening to broaden the client base and portfolio of projects.
Once the realisation they could compete with the bigger companies took place more ambitious projects soon followed. Austin, as he looked to scale up, recognised he needed to invest in administrative support.
He brought on a contract manager, legal consultants and an administrator in the office. Despite these key moves in personnel, Austin said he still responds to every quote.
“I go to every meeting. Every job I’m onsite,” he added.
“I want to keep it that way, too, so our clients are always dealing with the owner of the business.”
Running as a lean operation also gives the business the versatility and immediacy to effect a rapid response often with less overheads. They will rarely have more than three crews out at one time.
Nor are they spread all over the country.
This has impressed government agencies like Department of Main Roads in Queensland and Transport for NSW, who they also work closely with.
“Because we don’t have so many variable costs our prices are extremely competitive,” said Austin. “That’s what we’re finding out.”
For more information, visit underroadboringaustralia.com
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