Client:   BJ Jarrad Pty Ltd for United Water

Asset Owner:   SA Water

Project:   Rehabilitation of 1km trunk watermain in South Parklands, South Australia

CLM Trenchless offer Swagelining as a rehabilitation process for the renewal of pressure and non pressure pipelines in water, sewer and industrial applications. The process is ideally suited where techniques such as open trench or pipebursting are not suitable. CLM Trenchless is a licensee to Advantica and currently is the only contracotr performing swagelining in Australia having also completed a project in Hobart and in Sydney recently for Sydney Water.

This project emerged from SW Water's desire to trial trenchless technology using established local contractors. Originally two options were tables; slip lining and swagelining, with the later chosen as the preferred option. BJ Jarrad, in conjunction with CLM Trenchless, was awarded the project based on key assessment criteria of price, methodology and experience.

The Swagelining system uses polyethylene (PE) pipe, which has an outside diameter slightly larger then the pipe to be rehabilitated. After sections of PE pipe are butt fused together to form a continuous string, the PE pipe is pulled through a reducing dye to temporarily reduce diameter. This allows the PE pipe to be easily pulled through the host pipe. After the PE pipe is inserted, the pulling force is removed, allowing the PE pipe to return naturally toward its original diameter until it presses closely against the wall of the host pipe. The new tight fitting pipe results in a flow capacity close to the original pipeline design. This technology is suitable for applications ranging in diameter from 300mm up to 1000mm, and a wide range of fittings are available from various manufacturers.

Project Profile

South Parklands Adelaide CBD Watermain Rehabilitation Project

The project involved the rehabilitation of 1km of DN600 cast iron watermain in an environmentally sensitive location (open parkland adjacent to the CBD) using the technique of swagelining in four 250m sections. The PE used for this project was PN12.5 HDPE 630mm with a 47mm wall thickness. The swagelining process involved setting up five 12m long launch and receipt pits, butt welding 20m lengths of PE and positioning of the swagelining rig and hydraulic pulling equipment (Tracto Technik 800G). Installation took two weeks to complete with each run taking approximately 4 hours at a consistent pulling load of 60 tonnes. The equipment required for this project was manufactured by CLM Trenchless.

SA Water has encouraged the investigation of new rehabilitation techniques. In particular, John Ringham, Chief Operating Officer for SA Water, has wanted to see trenchless technology embraced as part of their renewals program given his extensive UK experience in large scale rehabilitation programs of water networks. Swagelining has been around for quite a while but with recent developments in pipe manufacture and specification, it has now opened up the range of application for this technology. In summary, SA Water can now lay claim to having the largest swagelining project completed in Australia. With the experience CLM has gained from this project, it is now quite excited about the potential growth in large bore pipeline rehabilitation for this application.