Fulton Hogan is upgrading a water main that has been supplying water to Adelaide CBD for the past 90 years.

In July this year, Fulton Hogan was awarded the Hackney and North East Road Trunk Water Main Renewal project by SA Water. The project involves 2.2km of pipe relining, underboring, and complete replacement of various sections of the pipeline.

The team recently carried out relining on sections of the pipeline using the Titeflow die-reduction method. Project Manager Christopher Maiolo says “This was a big accomplishment because it is the largest diameter pipe reline ever completed in Australia using this method,”

“The reason this method was chosen to reline several sections is because the pipeline runs under some of the busiest roads and streets adjacent the CBD, and this method significantly reduces the impact to stakeholders and minimises traffic disruptions.”

The Titeflow die-reduction process involves temporarily reducing the diameter of the new pipe using over 50 tonnes of hydraulic pressure, and pulling it through the old ‘host’ pipe. Once the pipes have been completely pulled through, the pressure is released so the new pipe ‘relaxes’ over a 24 hour period to its original size within the old pipe, effectively replacing the old pipe.

“We’ve used this method on two sections spanning over 750m of the busiest parts of the trunk water main,” said Christopher.

The next stage of the project involves over 20 cross connections from a redundant watermain to a new main, extending 11km from Hope Valley Reservoir to the Gilberton Pump Station, along North East Road; another major arterial road with very large traffic volumes.