A major milestone was achieved for the Wentworth to Broken Hill Pipeline Project (W2BH) this month when the project’s construction team laid the last of the 22,000 pipes needed for the 270km water supply initiative.
A consortium of John Holland, MPC Kinetic and TRILITY were appointed by WaterNSW to design, construct, operate and maintain the Wentworth to Broken Hill Pipeline.
MPC Kinetic Chief Operating Officer Tony O’Sullivan has commended the pipeline management and construction teams behind the tremendous effort, which has seen the delivery of the entire 270km pipeline scope ahead of schedule. The pipeline delivery team only mobilised to Wentworth in January this year, and 10 months later had successfully laid all 22,000 pipes.
“MPC Kinetic knew this important water infrastructure project would present many challenges, given the short timeframe between design and construction, and the final installation of pipe being in 6km of solid rock through the streets of Broken Hill. However, we don’t shy away from challenges and were confident in our highly-skilled pipeline construction team, and their ability to work collaboratively with our experienced infrastructure Joint Venture partners John Holland, to ensure this project was delivered for our client WaterNSW,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
The W2BH project has brought immediate benefits to both Wentworth and Broken Hill, as more than $35 million has been spent in local communities since construction activities first began. This includes work for the Sulphide St Railway and Historical Museum, enhancement of the ET Lamb Memorial Oval, sponsorship of the Broken Hill Community Volunteer Awards and financial assistance to Silverlea.
The project was further able to provide 150 members of the local community with jobs, 48 of which were Aboriginal people and enabled 18 young trainees to gain a Certificate II by training and working on the project.
The next step for the W2BH project is to finalise the commissioning of the four large-scale pump station facilities (managed by John Holland) and then hand over to WaterNSW in December.
More information on the Wentworth to Broken Hill Pipeline Project can be found here.