the engine room
DESCRIPTION
‘The Engine Room’ was an excellent initiative to promote the crucial contribution that the engineering profession has made, and this was distributed via The Advertiser to nearly 200,000 businesses and households. The South Australia Division worked together with The Advertiser to develop this publication which highlights the wonders of South Australian engineering between the years 2000 – 2010.TRANSCRIPT
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7 14 19Building Australian defences
Protecting scarce resources
Driving learning
THE WONDERS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERING 2000-2010
MAGAZINE
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Black Tie Ball
2011 South Australian
Engineering Excellence Awards
Presentation Dinner
Friday 16th September 2011
TO REGISTER PLEASE VISIT:
WWW.ENGINEERSAUSTRALIA.ORG.AU/SA/EVENTS
OR PHONE EVENTS COORDINATOR SHARRYN FENSOM ON: (08) 8202 7140
THE ADVERTISER I ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA (SA) 2011 3
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Making a lasting contribution
AFTER reading this show-
case of South Australian
engineering achieve-
ment, you will now understand
why I am so proud to represent
such creative and highly motiv-
ated people.
Our engineers have been re-
sponsible for many of SA’s suc-
cess stories, using their intelli-
gence and vision to create a
more prosperous future for
everyone.
Each of these projects has been
recognised for its engineering
excellence. Indeed, they are rep-
resentative of the best projects
produced by SA engineers over
the last 10 years.
Engineers enjoy a well-
deserved reputation for provid-
ing solutions that benefit our
communities and the people
who live in them, leaving a lasting
legacy for generations to come.
This publication has featured
just a few examples from the
large number of great engineer-
ing achievements.
It is no wonder, then, that being
an engineer is an immensely
rewarding career. Women and
men of all ages, experience and
educational levels can contribute
to the engineering team. The
opportunities are many and
widespread, and I encourage
everyone to consider a career in
engineering, and to perhaps
contribute to their own ‘‘engin-
eering wonder’’.
If you would like to discover
more, please visit the Engineers
Australia ‘‘Make it so’’ page at
www.makeitso.org.au or contact
E n g i n e e r s A u s t r a l i a a t
your local university or TAFE SA
campus, to find out more about
the training options.
❏ Dr David Cruickshanks-Boyd
is president of the SA Division of
Engineers Australia. ❯❯
EDITORIAL
Editor Russell Emmerson
Writers Meredith Booth, Alexandra
Economou, Russell Emmerson, Christopher
Russell, Giuseppe Tauriello, Belinda Willis
Production Editor Allan Blane
Photographs Campbell Brodie, Brenton
Edwards, James Elsby, Patrick Gorbunovs,
Naomi Jellicoe, Michael Marschall, Nigel
Parsons, Jo-Anna Robinson, Matt Turner,
Brooke Whatnall
DISPLAY ADVERTISING
Cheryl Bilney, phone 08 8206 2353, email
THE ADVERTISER
Editor Melvin Mansell
Managing Director Ish Davies
Advertising Director David Perrins
Business Editor Christopher Russell
Published by Advertiser Newspapers Pty
Ltd, 31 Waymouth St, Adelaide, SA, 5000
Phone 1300 130 370
Email i [email protected]
Produced in conjunction with Engineers
Australia, South Australia Division.
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA (SA)
President Dr David Cruickshanks-Boyd
Executive Director Caroline Argent
Deputy Director Sarah Carey
COVER PHOTO
Engineers Australia Women in Engineering
chair and hydraulics engineer Niki Robinson
at the re-cycled water fountain on North
Terrace.
Remote rewards: p11
WELCOME THE ENGINE ROOM
4 THE ADVERTISER I ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA (SA) 2011
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Engineers playcrucial rolein buildinga future forSouth Australia
A message from PremierMike Rann
SOUTH Australia is currently
undergoing the biggest
infrastructure build in the
history of our state.
Among the transformational projects
are a desalination plant that will ensure
our city never again faces the prospect
of running out of water.
There is also the reinvigoration of our
showpiece Riverbank precinct, which
includes an expanded Adelaide
Convention Centre and a world-class
redevelopment of the internationally-
renowned Adelaide Oval.
Work is also under way on the new
Royal Adelaide Hospital and, alongside
it, the Commonwealth-funded South
Australian Health and Medical
Research Institute that will be
completed next year.
In addition, we are investing billions
of dollars on upgrading and extending
our public transport infrastructure and
improving our roads network, which
includes our state’s biggest-ever road
project, the South Road Superway.
Furthermore, we have established the
Le Fevre Peninsula and our northern
suburbs as hubs for the defence
industries, with the largest shiplift in the
southern hemisphere now being
housed at Techport Australia’s
Common User Facility at Osborne.
Our mining industries also continue
to expand, and earlier last month our
17th mine – at Peculiar Knob near
Coober Pedy – promised an
investment of $250 million in
construction.
Right now, we have more than $80
billion worth of private and public-
funded infrastructure projects either
under way or in the advanced stages
of planning. Consequently, there has
never been a more important time to
acknowledge the crucial role that
engineers are playing in the rebuilding
of our state. Their expertise in solving
sometimes complex problems and
delivering these state-of-the-art
projects is vital to ensuring Adelaide,
and South Australia, continue to grow
and prosper.
In addition, the State Government
remains strongly committed through
our education and skills training
programs to increasing the number of
South Australians with formal
qualifications in engineering.
That’s because, as Albert Einstein so
prudently noted: ‘‘Engineers create
that which has never been.’’ ❯❯
THE ENGINE ROOM TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
Project director David Bartlett and, below, the opened Port River Expressway bridges at night. Picture: James Elsby.
Engineering ingenuity and 4000 litres of ethanol ensured the PortRiver bridges operate without a hangover, writes Russell Emmerson
Alcoholraisesprojecta level
YOU know you are working on a
key project when it comes with
its own liquor licence. Sure, the
$178 million Port River Express-
way bridges are deemed a key
piece of the state’s economic infrastructure,
but a project that uses almost 4000 litres of
alcohol for ‘‘clever engineering’’ is not your
average road project.
The twin road and rail bridges are based
on a simple-enough principle – a bascule
bridge or see-saw – but their need to bear
up to 50 tonnes and still open and close
smoothly and reliably in only 70 seconds
required clever innovation.
Project director David Bartlett says the only
way to make a tight fit for the shaft and hub
was to use a shrink-fit process.
‘‘They heated the girder over an extreme
heat with gas burners underneath it and a
thermal blanket over to get to about 160C,’’
he says.
‘‘They then put the shaft in four tonnes of
dry ice and ethanol – almost 4000 litres of
ethanol – to lower the temperature to about
-78C and then lowered them into one
another. When the temperatures returned to
normal, almost instantaneously it fitted per-
fectly with all 40 bolt holes lining up.’’
Using alcohol was ingenious, he admits, but
the success of hard work behind the project
shows today in its continuing operations.
Expertise for opening bridges is scant in
Australia – there has been only one other
small opening bridge built in the past 40
years – so that knowledge was found in the
US and reviewed by European experts. But
moving the bridge from concept to detailed
plan required months of consultation.
It had to be high enough to let through the
river’s vast number of recreational boats
without opening, but every metre of height
meant rail approaches needed a broader
footprint to get fully laden trains over the top.
The answer: more research. Many trains
used double locomotives to cope with long
climbs as far away as Snowtown, so had
more power than first thought.
Then there was the fact that longer trains
– some up to 1.8km long – would have part
of their weight over the highest part of the
bridge, which wouldn’t have to bear the
whole load on the relatively short incline.
And trains returning from Port Adelaide
would not need as much power as they
would be towing empty carriages.
Trucks needed specific approaches to en-
sure efficient deliveries to Outer Harbor.
The bridges took three years to construct
but are a widely recognised success, even
set to appear on a special commemorative
coin to be minted this year.
Mr Bartlett has now moved to bigger and
better things – including constructing the
world’s third-largest incremental bridge as
part of the Seaford rail extension – but he
recognises that the efforts put into the
operational planning are still delivering.
‘‘You drive over it and think ‘It’s working for
road, rail and marine’,’’ he says. ‘‘There are
some infrastructure projects that don’t op-
erate the way they are designed without a
few teething problems. But the operation of
this one has been great. No one has
complained . . . That’s a success.’’ ❯❯
Port River Expressway
❏ Opening road and rail bridges❏ Department of Transport, Energy and
Infrastructure❏ Opened: 2008❏ Cost: $178 million❏ Jobs: 300 jobs onsite, 600 in
subcontracting companies
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CSIRO2-8
FCT general manager David Petallack, University of Adelaide’s Professor Gus Nathan, FCT managing director Con Manias, and Dr Jordan Parham with the Olympic torches. Picture: Matt Turner.
Where do you turn for aninnovation that representscourage, determination and thepeak of sporting excellence? Tothe Adelaide suburb ofThebarton, of course
THE Sydney Olympic torch was
carried by 14,000 torch bearers on
a 27,000km global relay to bring
the Olympic ideals to Australia.
It continued to burn bright as it
was carried over beaches, under water,
through deserts, city streets and towns.
When sprinter Cathy Freeman lit the caul-
dron, amid the worldwide cheers was a
collective sigh of relief as the journey ended.
Thebarton-based FCT and the University of
Adelaide’s Centre for Energy Technology
developed the novel design for the torch after
winning the global contract.
The company now has a subsidiary that
specialises in global events, with its handi-
work seen at most Olympic, Asian and Pan
American games since its 2000 Sydney
debut – including the Vancouver Winter
Olympics, the Singapore Youth Olympics
and the Pan Am Games in Mexico City.
FCT managing director Con Manias says
the development of industrial principles for
entertainment has its own unique challenges.
‘‘It presents some enormous challenges
and there were specific solutions developed
for each event,’’ he says.
‘‘Then there is the engineering where all this
has to work reliably and safely with multiple
redundancies. In some cases, there were
four ways to light a cauldron.
‘‘But it’s not like industrial work, where you
can retest the following day. With billions of
people watching opening ceremonies and
with flames being the central part of a
ceremony, not working is not an option.’’
Every Olympics has a unique torch, de-
signed by the host country but the Sydney
torch now has an extensive legacy.
The combustion system, using capabilities
established in developing burners first tested
in Adelaide Brighton’s Angaston cement
kilns, cut the number of ‘‘flameouts’’ by a
factor of 10 and its greenhouse emissions
by 70 per cent.
Professor Gus Nathan says the project
became a labour of love, with more than $1
million of testing and development time
contributed for no charge.
‘‘It was very much a team effort where
everyone was content to do something much
bigger than anything one person could do
alone,’’ he says.
‘‘We all wanted to take the technology
further than it had been. The level of secrecy
surrounding the job added to the excitement
and created an air of mystique.’’ ❯❯
Flame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightlyFlame burns brightly
ENTERTAINMENT THE ENGINE ROOM
$5bnsubsprojectbuilds forthe futureThe next generation of submarines and destroyers won’t justprotect Australia’s coastline – they are establishing a vital newindustry in South Australia, reports Belinda Willis
‘‘This really liftedthe quality
standards of manyengineering companies
BUILDING six Collins-class
submarines in South Austra-
lia was the largest and most
complex construction pro-
ject ever undertaken in the
nation, according to ASC’s engineering
general manager.
The $5 billion project led to the state
building the world’s largest conventional
submarines, made up of half a million
parts, 75km of cable, 200,000 on-board
connections and 23.5km of hull welding.
An entirely new facility was built at Os-
borne in Adelaide after the contract to
build the six submarines was signed on
May 31, 1987.
The first submarine was launched in
August 1993 in front of a crowd of 4500
and was delivered
to the navy in 1996.
The sixth, HMAS
Rankin, was delive-
red in 2003.
ASC general man-
ager, engineering,
Jack Atkinson says
technologies to
build the submarines were sourced from
all over the world with any purchases tied
to overseas companies having to estab-
lish a partner in Australia.
This led to new work for local businesses
that may have never worked on defence
contracts before; 1250 companies
Australia-wide were contracted to provide
various equipment and components.
‘‘This really lifted the quality standards
of many engineering companies,’’ Mr
Atkinson says.
It was Australia’s coastline that provided
the immense challenge to build a sub-
marine that could protect millions of
square kilometres of maritime domain.
Existing conventional submarines were
designed to operate for short durations
and distances from their coasts, but the
Collins is different.
‘‘It’s a blue-ocean boat. It can transit the
Pacific Ocean or the Indian if it had to.
It could go on a cruise around the world
without a big problem,’’ ASC submarine
technical authority Stephen Bitmead says.
The Collins submarines weigh 3000
tonnes, are 78m long, use 108 systems
and carry a crew of 43.
It took 2.5 million person hours to
assemble each submarine, with an aver-
age construction time of 60 months.
Mr Atkinson says that after the new
submarine construction facility was built,
so too was a new workforce created in
South Australia.
It started with 30
jobs when con-
tracts were signed
in 1987 and grew
rapidly to peak at
1300 in 1992.
Jim Duncan, a for-
mer naval electrical
engineer, was ap-
pointed by the SA government to lead the
submarine taskforce working to win the
contract to build in SA.
He presented a winning case that SA was
a ‘‘greenfield’’ site, one free from other
outdated technical processes, poor indus-
trial relations constraints and inefficient
work practices.
The result is one of the most advanced
conventional submarines in the world and
a workforce skilled to attract other projects
to the state.
‘‘The Collins were built by local firms
teamed up with overseas suppliers.
That lifted the whole of manufacturing
capability in Australia on the back of this
one project,’’ Mr Atkinson says. ❯❯
6 THE ADVERTISER I ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA (SA) 2011
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THE ENGINE ROOM DEFENCE
ASC Air Warfare Destroyer riggers Mark Renfrey and Nathan Crack at Osborne shipyard
Warship alliesA
USTRALIA’S new $8 billion Air War-
fare Destroyers are being touted as
the most powerful, complex and
capable ships ever to serve the
Royal Australian Navy.
HMAS Hobart, HMAS Sydney and HMAS
Brisbane will be built in Adelaide under the
AWD Alliance – comprising shipbuilder ASC,
electronics expert Raytheon Australia and the
Defence Materiel Organisation – and become
the core assets for the navy’s surface fleet.
‘‘These ships are, in themselves, wonders
. . . The capability of these warships is
staggering,’’ ASC principal naval architect
Peter Roberts said.
The Air Warfare Destroyers (AWDs), de-
signed to displace 7000 tonnes, will be
equipped with the Aegis Weapon System
and give the navy long-range air defence
capabilities.
When terrorists destroyed New York’s World
Trade Centre buildings on September 11,
2001, the US immediately deployed Aegis-
equipped ships – off both east and west
coasts – to cover all US airspace within a
protective Aegis ‘‘bubble’’.
Under the AWD Alliance, blocks for the three
new ships will be built in Adelaide, Melbourne
and Newcastle.
All the blocks will then be shipped to
Adelaide for the destroyers to be assembled
and fitted out at ASC’s Osborne site.
When the contract was first mooted, Mr
Roberts says, Victoria was ‘‘heir apparent’’
for the construction project after having built
six ANZAC frigates for the navy at its
Williamstown shipyard.
The State Government and ASC started
work on developing a strategy to win the
work from Victoria in 2000.
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DEFENCE THE ENGINE ROOM
join the action
ASC principal naval
architect Peter Roberts
describes the Air
Warfare Destroyers’
capability as
staggering
Picture: James Elsby
They first looked at the Osborne facility’s
capacity to build new ships, including the
likely requirements beyond 2030.
The work paid off. In 2005, Adelaide was
named the winning project bidder for con-
struction and the site also won work in
building some of the blocks.
Work is now well under way on building the
first destroyer. A new shipyard facility has
been built at Osborne, with a state-of-the-art
shiplift at the nearby Common User Facility
believed to be the largest in the southern
hemisphere.
When ASC won the role of shipbuilder for
the destroyers, Premier Mike Rann said SA
‘‘had won what will be the biggest project
in the history of the state’’, a project expected
to create 3000 direct and indirect jobs.
The project has since become the touch-
stone for diversification of the state’s
economy, offering defence alongside
mining and international education to signal
SA’s move away from manufacturing – or
perhaps a move towards smarter, more vital
manufacturing.
Federal Minister for Defence Materiel Jason
Clare opened the Air Warfare Destroyer
Systems Centre at Techport Australia last
year, saying it marked an important mile-
stone in the project.
‘‘It brings together 300 expert naval archi-
tects, project managers and combat systems
engineers under one roof to get on with the
job of delivering Australia’s new warships,’’
Mr Clare said.
He said the project would see an investment
of about $2 billion in South Australia.
More than 800 people are working on the
new destroyers at the Techport precinct. This
will rise to more than 1000 next year. ❯❯
Keyhole surgerywas a life saverand world first
ASC Submarine technical authority Stephen Bitmead came up with a surgical solution
WHEN a problem was dis-
covered in one of the
Collins-class submarine’s
90-tonne electric propulsion
motors during maintenance, the expected
solution was to cut the hull away and fix
the defect. That’s not such a simple task,
requiring the motor to be removed to a
specialist workshop.
ASC engineers, who discovered the
defect at the heart of the motor during
planned maintenance at the ASC site at
Osborne, believed they could find a more
efficient way to repair the problem.
They set about developing a way to
perform key-hole surgery within the
cramped confines of HMAS Farncomb
without cutting the hull.
ASC Submarine technical authority Ste-
phen Bitmead says the low-risk solution
– cutting the back off the submarine,
removing and repairing the motor and
then rejoining the hull – would have added
weeks to the maintenance program.
‘‘We had to come up with an innovative
solution to allow us to do the work all in-
situ,’’ Mr Bitmead says.
The team – working with French engin-
eers from the company that designed and
built the propulsion motors – found a way
to lift the motor and the 30-tonne armature
and support it within the submarine,
creating enough space for engineers to
access the motor and perform repairs.
This meant the hull did not need to be
cut in half, and pipes and cables did not
need to be cut and rejoined.
The design, pre-manufacturing and in-
situ motor repairs were done in less than
20 weeks – well within the original main-
tenance timeframe.
To perform such extensive repairs of this
scale inside a submarine was hailed as
a world first and the work has won a
national engineering award.
Greg Tunny, ASC’s managing director
at the time, described the SA engineering
success as ‘‘a worldwide groundbreaking
solution’’ that could be used ‘‘by any other
submarine class in the world’’. ❯❯
Australian Engineering Week is a public awareness and education
campaign that aims to highlight the role and achievements of the
engineering profession in Australia, and to promote engineering
as the career of choice.
Keep an eye out on all the upcoming events and register online by
visiting the South Australian Division section of the 2011 AEW website:
www.engineersaustralia.org.au/aew/divisions/sa
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W W
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THE ENGINE ROOM SMART MANUFACTURING
SA expertise toinject solutionsIt takes one solution to solve millions of problems, writes Meredith Booth
‘‘Beauty of this wasadding some parts
that made a huge saving
Former SafetyMed managing director John Riemelmoser (front) with Automation SA director Robert Doley. Picture: James Elsby.
AUTOMATION SA director Robert
Doley knows first hand the
depth of engineering expertise
available in South Australia to
solve difficult problems.
With fellow engineer Quentin Roberts, Mr
Doley led a team of mechanical, electrical
and system integration engineers to build the
first automated retractable syringe assembly
machine for former medical industry heavy-
weight SafetyMedical.
The company produced a system which
assembled 40 million syringes a year by
retro-fitting off-the-shelf syringes so that the
needle retracts and is locked in a sleeve –
preventing needle-stick injuries.
The system took about nine months from
idea to prototype, Mr Doley said.
The SecureTouch system won an Engineer-
ing Excellence Award in 2007 and was built
by ProControl Systems, a company later
bought by SafetyMed. Mr Doley said the
company tackled the design because no
other firm would take it on.
‘‘The beauty of this was adding some parts
that made a huge saving, adding just a few
cents to each standard syringe,’’ he said.
Safe syringes built from scratch cost around
three to four times the SecureTouch syringes,
which put the product at the forefront of a
market which would prevent needle stick
injury, Mr Doley says.
Award-winning design points of the
SecureTouch system were its mechanical
sorting and feeding, vision systems and
ultrasonic welding and testing. The innova-
tion and complexity of the project cemented
South Australia’s technical ability, particularly
while traditional manufacturing in the state
was shrinking.
Mr Doley says plans were well underway
to export machines to syringe assembly
plants worldwide and to produce a second
generation SecureTouch system with output
closer to 100 million syringes a year.
However, financial problems hit the parent
company and the project.
ProControl became a victim of SafetyMed’s
restructure and the 15-strong engineering
team disbanded to various other industries
both as full-time employees and directors of
start-up companies throughout the state.
Mr Doley has no doubt that expertise can
be reassembled at any time to produce
s y s t e m s o f a s i m i l a r c a l i b r e t o
SecureTouch. ❯❯
A new pipeline technologyhelps circumvent opensewer works
Pipe repairerensures odioussights andsmells arewell avoided
SHAUN Melville doesn’t talk
about his product, especially at
dinner parties.
And the more successful it is, the less
likely it is people will hear about it.
But when you are looking at a $400
million global market, social taboos
can be easily discarded.
Some of the world’s greatest infra-
structure achievements are city-wide
sewage and stormwater distribution
systems.
Yet these systems are now deteriorat-
ing, with pipes collapsing, causing
havoc as roads flood or are dug up
to replace the ageing structures.
Which is where trenchless pipe tech-
nology comes into play, Sekisui Rib
Loc Australia product manager Shaun
Melville says.
‘‘Globally, the problem of deteriorated
pipelines is huge – and getting revised
upwards all the time as the full extent
of the problem becomes better known
as people do more inspections of their
pipe infrastructure,’’ he says.
The Rotaloc is aimed squarely at this
problem, relying on finesse rather than
force.
The machine creates a new pipe
within the existing pipe, using a liner
that is delivered to the site on spools
and locks together to form a new,
strong structure.
Where previous attempts were de-
feated by a 90-degree bend – unless
a manhole was to be found in the right
spot – the Rotaloc can travel down the
pipeline as it rehabilitates it.
The end result is a new pipe, designed
to last 50 years, installed with no trench
digging, minimal traffic interruptions
and – perhaps its most welcome point
– no open sewer works for those
operating the system.
‘‘That is what engineering is about,’’
Mr Melville says. ‘‘People see the
innovation when exposed to it, and we
have won awards, but a big part of what
we do is try to limit what people have
to see when the work is happening.’’ ❯❯
– Russell Emmerson
Rotaloc
❏ Rotaloc structural pipeline rehabilitation
❏ Sekisui Rib Loc Australia
❏ Completed: 2000
❏ Cost: About $1 million
❏ Jobs: About four
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WATER THE ENGINE ROOM
Challengeis for reuseto work onall counts
THE next challenge for the state’s
water reuse schemes lies not with
engineering but with economics. The
Willunga Basin project at Christies Beach
turns out 4GL of water every year out of
a total catchment of 9GL and the Bolivar
treatment plant supplies the Virginia hor-
ticultural area with 18GL every year – from
its 50GL capacity.
SA Water’s business development man-
ager for Mawson Lakes, Chris Marles, says
the future of stormwater and wastewater
reuse won’t rest solely on the shoulders of
engineers. ‘‘We are now the leaders in the
use of water resources, well over 30 per
cent, and we are taking it further by
integrating three more stormwater
schemes, Adelaide Airport, Lochiel Park
and Barker Inlet,’’ he says.
‘‘But everyone expects it to have a lower
cost – it is not cheaper; it is on par with
the sources so it is on par with price. The
other challenge is that irrigation schemes
are used during the summer and demand
stops in winter. We have to figure out how
to store winter water for summer use.’’
SA Water infrastructure delivery manager
Peter Selsikas says commercial viability is
the key. ‘‘There are no impediments to
increased efficiency from an engineering
perspective because we can treat the water
with our current technology,’’ he says. ‘‘The
impediment is the cost to do it.’’ ❯❯
Pipelineprovideslifeline toparchedparklands
ADELAIDE’S heritage parklands
can trace their history to Colonel
William Light. They can now
trace their future to a pipe bringing
water from Glenelg.
The Glenelg-Adelaide pipeline follows
the principles of the Mawson Lakes
reticulated water system but takes it a
step further, SA Water infrastructure
delivery manager Peter Selsikas says.
‘‘The key difference with Mawson
Lakes was it is built around irrigation
rather than reticulation,’’ he says.
The heritage nature of the parklands
demands they stay green – an over-
whelming challenge to one of the
country’s driest cities after a period of
prolonged drought.
But an existing source of waste water
was already available at Glenelg.
The reuse system was commissioned
in the 1970s and was made available
to Adelaide Shores and West Beach
but now also serves as a lifeline for
Adelaide’s parklands.
Although this project may have one
of the biggest impacts, Mr Selsikas
says it is not his proudest achievement.
That prize goes to securing water for
remote communities.
‘‘We had to provide infrastructure for
the Lower Lakes in a short period of
time, infrastructure that made a differ-
ence,’’ he says. ❯❯
An extended drought should have brought tears of joy to South Australia’s largest water supplier. RussellEmmerson discovers SA Water has instead spent that time building new ways to use scarce water more smartly
Purple paves way
BRAND marketing can be seen
as a battle for colour identity.
Companies spend millions of
dollars to identify their brand
with a particular colour, fighting
to dominate yellow, red and blue.
Purple, however, is the stamp for the
Mawson Lakes brand.
The greenfield development was the first to
feature the now-famous purple ‘‘third pipe’’
carrying stormwater and treated waste water
for use in gardens, toilets and other non-
potable situations.
SA Water’s business development manager
for Mawson Lakes, Chris Marles, says plans
for the scheme arose after the collapse of
the multi-function polis.
The concept of reusing water across a
greenfields site was developed in 1996 and
a firm proposal followed two years later.
While the scheme built on a similar proposal
at Rowse Hill in Sydney, Mawson Lakes took
it one step further.
‘‘It was the first one we had done in South
Australia to the extent of putting dual reticu-
lation into 4000 homes, so getting it right and
accurate was the problem,’’ he says.
‘‘But we went beyond Rowse Hill. We
stepped it up from waste water to mixing
treated waste with stormwater as a source.
‘‘People’s skills adapted to the need in front
of them at the time and we have adapted
as a community as well.’’
The challenge lay in balancing the two
inputs to provide a consistent product while
also bringing in mains water as a backup,
Mr Marles says.
Treated water is brought in from Bolivar and
stormwater from Salisbury is added to the
mix. But maintaining a target purity of 900mg
of solids for every litre is the key, he says.
‘‘The main variability is the TSMs (total
dissolved solids), the measure of the water’s
solids content,’’ he says.
‘‘It is pretty constant with waste water but
the water coming from Salisbury can vary
a bit depending on which acquifer it comes
from and how much TDS was in when it
comes from the acquifer.’’
The mix is adjusted automatically, proces-
sed as part of a system involving an under-
ground pumping station and 12km of pump-
ing mains.
The project, which has since won interna-
tional praise, delivered its first water in 2005
and serves to cut waste water running into
Gulf St Vincent.
And the outcome is a worthy one – the
system saves 800 million litres of mains water
every year. ❯❯
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THE ENGINE ROOM SMART MANUFACTURING
Success just ‘gold’ for local business
Minelab general
manager Peter
Charlesworth
ARTISANAL miners in Africa
and professional prospec-
tors in Western Australia
are among the people that are
using Minelab’s GPX 5000 gold
detector.
Developed by the Adelaide-
based mining technology busi-
ness, part of the Codan Group, the
detector is highly regarded be-
cause it can detect smaller gold
at greater depths across challeng-
ing mineralised grounds.
Minelab systems development
manager Philip Beck was involved
in the design and testing of the
GPX 5000. He says it has proven
to be popular here and interna-
tionally. ‘‘In Australia it is used by
professional prospectors and
hobbyists,’’ he says.
‘‘It’s also used, more so interna-
tionally, for relic hunting and we
sell into Africa for artisanal miners
who will use it to earn a living.’’
He says the major benefit of the
GPX 5000 is its ability to detect
new gold in areas where miner-
alisation affects the performance
of conventional mine detectors.
‘‘It is more optimised for very fine
gold, for small gold targets,’’ he
says. ‘‘There are not so many of
the one ounce pieces (of gold)
around. There’s more of the gram
pieces available and (this detec-
tor) is more accessible to those.’’
Development of the GPX 5000
began in October, 2008, and it
was released to the market late
last year.
Mr Beck says feedback has been
good: ‘‘I have had a message
from a customer in the US who
wants to upgrade to the GPX 5000
because his mate is finding a lot
more targets than he is.’’
Minelab describes the detector
as ‘‘breakthrough technology’’.
G e n e r a l m a n a g e r P e t e r
Charlesworth says that the com-
pany benefited from the work it
was doing in its fight to attract
engineers.
‘‘Adelaide may be a little
stranded but we get good engin-
eers because of the interesting
work we do, and our international
focus means we can pay competi-
tive salaries,’’ he says.
Between September last year
and June this year, 4988 GPX
5000 detectors have been sold
globally.
This has generated revenue of
$9.2 million from Australian sales
and $1.1 million from exports. ❯❯
– Alexandra Economou
I-Site’s bold new viewFew may know of Adelaidemining software companyMaptek’s role in the October2010 rescue of 33 minerstrapped in Chile’s San Jose mine,writes Meredith Booth
Mark Pfitzner and James
Howarth with the I-Site 8800
3D laser scanning system.
Picture: Jo-Anna Robinson
STAFF at Maptek’s Chile office
used their SA-developed I-Site
8800 3D laser scanning system,
in conjunction with its Vulcan
mine planning software, to
create a 3D model of the Chilean mine site
which allowed rescuers to pinpoint drill sites
for the rescue shaft.
The I-Site machine, which sources 70 per
cent of its components from South Australian
companies, is the only laser survey instru-
ment made in Australia and the only tech-
nology on the global market with a built-in
360-degree digital camera.
R&D manager James Howarth says the
instrument is sought after in mining circles
because it is easy for surveyors to use,
is compact and accurate and delivers a
fast 3D map.
The inbuilt camera also appeals to buyers,
Mr Howarth says.
The company has sold about 100 units,
worth about $250,000 each, since the first
instrument hit the market in 2005 – both
directly to mining companies as well as
surveying contractors and suppliers.
Sparked by an idea of capturing a large
scene in true 3D, the instrument took four
years of research and development to per-
fect. Sales now account for almost 20 per
cent of Maptek’s income – a company
success story, says Mr Howarth.
Led by opto-engineer Mark Pfitzner, the
36-member I-Site team of electronics, mech-
anical, optical, firmware and software engin-
eers are constantly working on improving
the product.
The latest generation I-Site, with an extra
long range of 2000m and greater attention
to ergonomic design and portability, was
released in 2010 to instant commercial
success, the company says. Founded in
1981 by now chairman Dr Bob Johnson,
Maptek has a collaborative network of 11
offices and 260 employees around the world.
‘‘The I-Site 8800 epitomised the teamwork
that has gone into the product,’’ Mr Pfitzner
says. ‘‘We relish feedback from users who
are out in the field every day. We can build
the most technologically advanced system
in the world but we must create products
that are useful for our customers to remain
in business,’’ he says. ❯❯
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MINING INFRASTRUCTURE THE ENGINE ROOM
Remote – really, really remote – a regional reserve, risk. These were the words tumbling through the heads of Iluka Resources managersin 2004 as they weighed up prospects of mineral sands discovery in South Australia’s Far West, writes Christopher Russell
SOME five years later, the words
from Iluka were ‘‘under budget,
ahead of schedule and no lost
time injuries’’.
That remarkable establishment
of the Jacinth-Ambrosia mine – understood
to have been delivered for about $390 million
on a $420 million budget – has led to another
word now associated with Iluka – reward.
A share price, which traded in the $3.50-$5
range in 2004 now sits above $17 as
hundreds of thousands of tonnes of its zircon
is shipped to the hungry markets of Asia for
use in ceramics.
The success of the project hinged on an
alliance forged between Iluka and partner
Parsons Brinckerhoff. ‘‘It was a different style
of contracting,’’ Iluka’s SA head and general
manager of project management, Hans
Umlauff says.
Instead of simply signing up Parsons
Brinckerhoff to engineer, procure and con-
struct the mine, an integrated team was set
up which took the best person from either
company for the various roles. ‘‘The fact that
it was such a remote location was an
interesting challenge,’’ Mr Umlauff says. ‘‘In
the Nullarbor, there was really nothing there.
We had to build it from the ground up.’’
Jacinth-Ambrosia is about 200km north-
west of Ceduna. At first, workers flew to the
port town and then drove three to four hours
over some ‘‘pretty basic roads’’ to get to the
site straddling the Yellabinna and Nullarbor
Regional Reserves.
‘‘It’s the first mine in SA to be built in a
regional reserve,’’ Mr Umlauff says.
‘‘The whole permitting exercise was quite
complicated for the regulators. It set very high
standards of environmental management.’’
A basic airstrip was built for light aircraft and
was later expanded to a proper fly-in-fly-out
village and a full-size runway as the workforce
swelled to 330.
A 90km road, now used for trucking mineral
sands to Thevenard, was built along with a
pipeline to a hypersaline water source 32km
away.
A diesel power plant was installed plus a
small desalination plant for potable water.
‘‘We installed communications facilities and
every day held morning meetings using
video conferencing between the site and the
team in Adelaide,’’ Mr Umlauff says.
This infrastructure was the backbone be-
hind the mining engineering work, which also
faced unique circumstances.
Parsons Brinckerhoff engineer Gary Neave,
deputy project manager in the alliance team,
says the deposit is an unusual shape for
mineral sands. Instead of a long line from
an old beachfront, J-A is roughly like a huge
footy oval, long and wide. ‘‘The mining unit
was quite innovative,’’ he says.
Instead of a train of components to be
dismantled and reassembled each move, the
unit was built on to one chassis. Weighing
about a kilotonne, it can pick itself up
hydraulically and move from position to
position. ‘‘It saves productivity losses of
significant percentages,’’ he says.
Another key to success was closely watch-
ing suppliers to ensure the 100 contracts met
schedule, Mr Neave says. ❯❯
Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.Remote. Control.
Mineral sands processing
❏ Jacinth-Ambrosia mineral sands mine❏ Cost: About $390 million with
about 84 per cent spent in SA❏ First mine in SA in a regional reserve
– the Yellabinna and Nullarbor❏ More than 900,000 hours worked in a
harsh, remote desert environmentwithout a single lost-time injury
❏ Capable of supplying about 25 per centof global zircon supply
ENGINEER THIS!High School Careers
Night
Tuesday, August 2nd 2011 – 5.30pm till 7.30pm
Where: Mawson Centre, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes
Fast cars, submarines and the latest gadgets – engineers helped build them all
Are you a school student, teacher, careers advisor or just interestedin what exactly engineers do?
This session provides essential information about the exciting and diverse opportunities a career in engineering can offer.
Online registration:www.engineersaustralia.org.au/aew/divisions/sa
AEWENGINEER2-8
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT THE ENGINE ROOMTHE ENGINE ROOM PROJECT MANAGEMENT
UPS AND DOWNS OF THE CLIPSAL
JULY
� First contracts out to tender
AUGUST
� KBR begins fortnightly meetings with client where suggestions for event are reviewed� Tendering continues
SEPTEMBER
� Tendering con-cludes
OCTOBER
� Proposed construc-tion budget provided to client
NOVEMBER
� Fortnightly mar-keting meetings and monthly engineering reports continue
DECEMBER
� KBR crew of four onsite as critical path items appear
JANUARY
� Major contractors and construction starts� KBR crew swells to 10
FEBRUARY
� KBR crew grows to 14 three weeks from the event� Short term contractors appear on site two weeks before to install signage, plant
MARCH Race days
� Dequettville Tce, Bartels Rd and Hutt St open to public ve-hicles 24 hours after event i nishes� Wakei eld St opens 44 hours later� Event debrief be-gins to assess effec-tiveness of changes and ways to improve execution
APRIL
� Depart site
MAY
� Site cleared
Clipsal’swelloiledmachine
LEFT:
Spectators
look down on
the starting
grid at the
Adelaide
Clipsal 500
Picture:
Brooke
Whatnall
RIGHT:
KBR project
manager
Simon Ward
says managing
changes is the
biggest
challenge
A race of blistering speed decided over two days takes five months tore-create every year. That’s the easy part, writes Russell Emmerson
THE Clipsal 500 Adelaide is one of
the hottest tickets around town in
Adelaide’s Mad March. Hundreds of
thousands of spectators pour into
the city’s parklands to watch a V8
Supercar race that has been described by
motorsport legend Murray Walker as the
world’s best touring car event.
Yet the street circuit, the safety barriers, every
paying customer seat and marquee sit
silently in storage until four months before the
event, waiting for a 400-strong team to build
the infrastructure.
KBR project manager Simon Ward is in
charge of the 10,000 tonnes of equipment,
including the 10,000 chairs and 30,129m of
fencing that form part of the project.
He is also in charge of the same equipment
as it is broken down and shipped off for
storage at Kilburn until the next race.
The magic of the engineering, he says, lies
in the process. The details of how the Clipsal
500 Adelaide appears in Victoria Park each
year reside in a very complex Access database
that tracks jobs, equipment, contractors and
processes. That same database is updated
every year with the changes that the event
organiser, the South Australian Motor Sport
Board, throws into the equation.
Some of those changes are small – expand-
ing the media centre with its 35km of electrical
cabling to cater for photographers – and some
are not. In 2009, grandstand facilities were
shaded and a new pits building was designed,
a $20 million project that was just one of that
year’s changes to the established process.
‘‘Change management is the most difficult
part. If we have 300 changes requested, every
change may affect five different contractors.
You may then have 1500 variations to make
sure they are carried out,’’ says Mr Ward.
‘‘We have to make sure that we get the detail
right in managing that change, otherwise the
person paying around $2000 for corporate
hospitality is not getting what they paid for.’’
Clipsal organisers have a key focus: estab-
lishing as many paying facilities as possible
that will provide a good experience, he says.
Those changes often come at the last minute
as sales warrant, meaning more pressure on
KBR, which has run the $12.5 million annual
construction project since 1999.
The addition of Route 66 brought in a line
of historic vehicles in celebration of the
famous US highway but KBR had to look past
the experience to the details – security,
fencing, toilets, walkways, electricity supply
and distribution.
Some solutions relate to planning, while
others demand innovative engineering and
design concepts, such as the demountable
airconditioning designed for the vast
12,000sq m pit lane building that combined
evaporative and refrigerated components.
Mr Ward says it is a year-long process that
involves feedback, costings and designs for
new ideas, commercial tendering and ongoing
review. The first tenders are out in July and
fortnightly meetings begin the following month
to assess what is new for that year’s event
and how the plan needs to change.
The parklands begin to take on a distinct
shape in December before moving into a major
construction phase in January. The final
touches start to appear three weeks before
race day when short-term contractors arrive.
In the final weeks, there is activity on the site
24 hours a day, seven days a week. And for
a structural engineer who has worked on the
upgrading of OneSteel’s Whyalla steelworks
as part of Project Magnet, Port Pirie’s lead
smelter and a number of projects in Papua
New Guinea, there is one factor that makes
the Clipsal 500 Adelaide special.
‘‘There is no extension of time; you can’t allow
a contractor not to finish,’’ Mr Ward says.
Yet three days later, the same crew is
beginning the two-month process of
deconstructing a major raceway and retracting
the footprint from one part of the park to the
next. The first public roads are open 24 hours
after the race is finished, the last are open 44
hours after that. Attention then moves to
putting 1200 truckloads of things away in the
right order for their Kilburn storage. That is
when Mr Ward, who headed up safety and
infrastructure elements of the Clipsal project
before taking on the overarching position last
year, begins to relax.
‘‘I am happier when the last thing has moved
off-site because it means there is no safety
risk,’’ he says.
‘‘The consequences are so far reaching, so
that is my biggest relief.’’ ❯❯
Nuts and bolts of the Clipsal 500■ 7893 sq m of carpet
■ 11,388 sq m of timber flooring
■ 9859 chairs
■ 22,834 grandstand seats
■ 2156 sq m of silk lining
■ 23,921 sq m of marqee
■ 8080 sq m of platform
■ 96 toilet blocks, 261 single toilets
■ 338 television sets
■ 1200 truck loads to and from yard
More is expected for next year’s event.
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●●
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT THE ENGINE ROOMTHE ENGINE ROOM PROJECT MANAGEMENT
UPS AND DOWNS OF THE CLIPSAL
JULY
� First contracts out to tender
AUGUST
� KBR begins fortnightly meetings with client where suggestions for event are reviewed� Tendering continues
SEPTEMBER
� Tendering con-cludes
OCTOBER
� Proposed construc-tion budget provided to client
NOVEMBER
� Fortnightly mar-keting meetings and monthly engineering reports continue
DECEMBER
� KBR crew of four onsite as critical path items appear
JANUARY
� Major contractors and construction starts� KBR crew swells to 10
FEBRUARY
� KBR crew grows to 14 three weeks from the event� Short term contractors appear on site two weeks before to install signage, plant
MARCH Race days
� Dequettville Tce, Bartels Rd and Hutt St open to public ve-hicles 24 hours after event i nishes� Wakei eld St opens 44 hours later� Event debrief be-gins to assess effec-tiveness of changes and ways to improve execution
APRIL
� Depart site
MAY
� Site cleared
Clipsal’swelloiledmachine
LEFT:
Spectators
look down on
the starting
grid at the
Adelaide
Clipsal 500
Picture:
Brooke
Whatnall
RIGHT:
KBR project
manager
Simon Ward
says managing
changes is the
biggest
challenge
A race of blistering speed decided over two days takes five months tore-create every year. That’s the easy part, writes Russell Emmerson
THE Clipsal 500 Adelaide is one of
the hottest tickets around town in
Adelaide’s Mad March. Hundreds of
thousands of spectators pour into
the city’s parklands to watch a V8
Supercar race that has been described by
motorsport legend Murray Walker as the
world’s best touring car event.
Yet the street circuit, the safety barriers, every
paying customer seat and marquee sit
silently in storage until four months before the
event, waiting for a 400-strong team to build
the infrastructure.
KBR project manager Simon Ward is in
charge of the 10,000 tonnes of equipment,
including the 10,000 chairs and 30,129m of
fencing that form part of the project.
He is also in charge of the same equipment
as it is broken down and shipped off for
storage at Kilburn until the next race.
The magic of the engineering, he says, lies
in the process. The details of how the Clipsal
500 Adelaide appears in Victoria Park each
year reside in a very complex Access database
that tracks jobs, equipment, contractors and
processes. That same database is updated
every year with the changes that the event
organiser, the South Australian Motor Sport
Board, throws into the equation.
Some of those changes are small – expand-
ing the media centre with its 35km of electrical
cabling to cater for photographers – and some
are not. In 2009, grandstand facilities were
shaded and a new pits building was designed,
a $20 million project that was just one of that
year’s changes to the established process.
‘‘Change management is the most difficult
part. If we have 300 changes requested, every
change may affect five different contractors.
You may then have 1500 variations to make
sure they are carried out,’’ says Mr Ward.
‘‘We have to make sure that we get the detail
right in managing that change, otherwise the
person paying around $2000 for corporate
hospitality is not getting what they paid for.’’
Clipsal organisers have a key focus: estab-
lishing as many paying facilities as possible
that will provide a good experience, he says.
Those changes often come at the last minute
as sales warrant, meaning more pressure on
KBR, which has run the $12.5 million annual
construction project since 1999.
The addition of Route 66 brought in a line
of historic vehicles in celebration of the
famous US highway but KBR had to look past
the experience to the details – security,
fencing, toilets, walkways, electricity supply
and distribution.
Some solutions relate to planning, while
others demand innovative engineering and
design concepts, such as the demountable
airconditioning designed for the vast
12,000sq m pit lane building that combined
evaporative and refrigerated components.
Mr Ward says it is a year-long process that
involves feedback, costings and designs for
new ideas, commercial tendering and ongoing
review. The first tenders are out in July and
fortnightly meetings begin the following month
to assess what is new for that year’s event
and how the plan needs to change.
The parklands begin to take on a distinct
shape in December before moving into a major
construction phase in January. The final
touches start to appear three weeks before
race day when short-term contractors arrive.
In the final weeks, there is activity on the site
24 hours a day, seven days a week. And for
a structural engineer who has worked on the
upgrading of OneSteel’s Whyalla steelworks
as part of Project Magnet, Port Pirie’s lead
smelter and a number of projects in Papua
New Guinea, there is one factor that makes
the Clipsal 500 Adelaide special.
‘‘There is no extension of time; you can’t allow
a contractor not to finish,’’ Mr Ward says.
Yet three days later, the same crew is
beginning the two-month process of
deconstructing a major raceway and retracting
the footprint from one part of the park to the
next. The first public roads are open 24 hours
after the race is finished, the last are open 44
hours after that. Attention then moves to
putting 1200 truckloads of things away in the
right order for their Kilburn storage. That is
when Mr Ward, who headed up safety and
infrastructure elements of the Clipsal project
before taking on the overarching position last
year, begins to relax.
‘‘I am happier when the last thing has moved
off-site because it means there is no safety
risk,’’ he says.
‘‘The consequences are so far reaching, so
that is my biggest relief.’’ ❯❯
Nuts and bolts of the Clipsal 500■ 7893 sq m of carpet
■ 11,388 sq m of timber flooring
■ 9859 chairs
■ 22,834 grandstand seats
■ 2156 sq m of silk lining
■ 23,921 sq m of marqee
■ 8080 sq m of platform
■ 96 toilet blocks, 261 single toilets
■ 338 television sets
■ 1200 truck loads to and from yard
More is expected for next year’s event.
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THE ENGINE ROOM SIMULATION
Training solution found in the back of a truck
WHEN one of the nation’s largest rail
freight haulage businesses, QR
National, wanted to efficiently train
a dispersed driver workforce on how to use
a new range of locomotives, it knew it needed
to think outside the square.
Step in Sydac, a simulation specialist. The
idea? A mobile driving simulator in the back
of a semi-trailer. Seems fairly straightforward,
but the year was 1998 and simulator tech-
nology was a far cry from what it is now.
Sydac system engineer Adrian James says
it was a challenge as the 38 new 4000-class
diesel electric locomotives on which the
simulator was based were unfinished. ‘‘It was
difficult to design the simulator at the same
time they were building the trains,’’ he says.
‘‘The typical train was 3m wide and the truck
was only 2.5m, so we couldn’t provide a full-
width simulator. It also had to be designed
to navigate rough roads.’’
The project highlights how far simulator
technology has come. ‘‘In those days we
mounted a video camera on a train and then
the train went around the network,’’ Mr James
says. ‘‘It measured the position of the train
with a tachometer and then we had a system
that would show the frame in the right vision.’’
The simulator operates across QR’s
Queensland and NSW depots and training
centres. The user swipes in using an ID card
and, based on their level of experience, a
training session is made available. A track
database comprises approximately 400km of
the QR network. ‘‘It’s a fully functional train
model,’’ Mr James says. ❯❯
Simulators have come a long way over the past decade. Giuseppe Tauriello reports on how Adelaide-based engineers at Sydac are using the technology to improve the safety of our road and rail networks
A train reaction
RESPONDING to disasters is
usually something left to police,
emergency services and our
politicians.
But the Waterfall train disaster of
2003 called on unprecedented engineering
ingenuity to ensure accidents of the kind
never happened again.
The Waterfall train derailment, 37km south-
west of Sydney, killed seven people including
the driver. An official inquiry concluded
further training of drivers and guards was
needed to improve railway communication.
Adelaide-based engineering company
Sydac started work on RailCorp’s virtual
reality training centre in Petersham near
Sydney in 2002, before the disaster, but chief
engineer Duncan Ward says what’s tran-
spired at the centre since then has been a
result of lessons learnt from the crash.
‘‘A lot of the requirements have come out
of the Waterfall train accident,’’ he says.
‘‘The Royal Commission used one of our
simulators to look at scenarios of how the
driver would have behaved in the situation.
‘‘To do this, we had to build computer
graphics for that section of the network.’’
Sydac developed an integrated network of
simulators, giving drivers, guards and other
train personnel a whole-of-operation simu-
lation experience.
Sydac operations manager Geoff Harvey
says its simulator for the Waratah train fleet
– which commenced its first passenger run
in Sydney in July – shows how the tech-
nology is helping to improve the training
experience.
‘‘The driver-guard simulation allows the
driver to be in one cab and the guard in
another and it can then investigate communi-
cations and actions between the two,’’ he
says. ‘‘They can operate the same vehicle
and do the communications training they
need to.
‘‘With the virtual passenger model you can
see passengers step on and off the train as
well as accidents, and even a scenario like
a bag being stuck in doors.’’
The RailCorp training centre allows for
tracks and driving conditions to be adjusted,
and unusual events like vehicle faults and
track obstructions can also be placed into
scenarios.
‘‘In the virtual reality theatres, a whole group
of people can get an immersive experience
by watching those actually using the simu-
lator,’’ Mr Ward says.
Mr Ward says the simulator project – one
of the first to use computerised graphics –
has had its share of challenges over the
years, including network capacity issues, but
the centre is now a fully integrated simulation
environment, improving the safety of the
nation’s rail networks.
The brains behind the project continue to
export their expertise – Mr Harvey helps
develop a training system for North American
freight railway CSX, and Mr Ward is working
on a simulator for the CRH3 in China. ❯❯
Mobile simulator
❏ Mobile driver training simulator for
the 4000 Class locomotive
❏ SYDAC
❏ Completed: December 1999
❏ Cost: $2.4 million
❏ Jobs: About 10
New drivingsimulators avaluable toolin saving lives
ENGINEERS saving lives – that’s
what Sydac’s driving simulator
for the Monash University Acci-
dent Research Centre is all about.
Utilising a real Holden Commodore
VE donated by Holden, Sydac’s design
is used by the university for research
into hazard awareness, driver distrac-
tion and the influence of drugs and
alcohol.
Sydac system architect David Lannan
says the $750,000 simulator replicates
the experience of driving a real car by
modelling and interfacing directly into
the car’s IT and electrical system.
‘‘They wanted a full vehicle, a com-
plete life-like experience,’’ Mr Lannan
says. ‘‘It even has a 7.1 HiFi sound
system.’’ Mr Lannan says working with
a real car provided both challenges
and opportunities.
‘‘There was a lot of work interfacing
with the real car features,’’ he says.
‘‘But once we had that data, the
existing speedometer and tachometer
meant we didn’t have to install it
ourselves.’’
The simulator, opened in April 2009,
records driver interaction with the car
including braking, acceleration and
steering. Cameras inside the car ana-
lyse driver vision, noise and driver
distraction. A 180-degree screen in
front of the car displays roads which
are designed to mirror typical Victorian
conditions.
But Mr Lannan says it is the finer
details which required the most tech-
nical expertise.
‘‘The biggest modification was the
rear view mirror where we had to install
rear view screens,’’ he says.
Mr Lannan has also designed smaller,
desktop car simulators for UniSA and
the University of Adelaide and is work-
ing on an application to create 3D
immersive environment training scen-
arios, currently being used by RailCorp
in Sydney. ❯❯
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WATER AND LIFE THE ENGINE ROOM
WarriparingaWetlands asuccess storyfor engineersand public
ENGINEERS and environmental-
ists applaud the 105 tonnes of
sediment and 47kg of phos-
phorus removed every year from the
Patawalonga Catchment as a sign of
the success of the Warriparinga
Wetlands.
Marion residents have a far simpler
criterion for that same success: stu-
dents learn there and people walk and
run around the lakes that are working
to protect the environment.
More than 45,000 cubic metres of
earth was moved to create the wetland,
sold to the Western Region Waste
Management Authority to rehabilitate
Garden Island.
It was replaced by four ponds with
hidden pollutant traps to capture debris
and gabion weirs – rock-filled wire
cages – to separate four interconnect-
ing clay-lined ponds.
The ponds expose the water to sun-
light, disinfecting it and offering a home
to fish, birds and plants.
The water is then diverted from the
Sturt River, filtered, then returned to the
river to drain into the sea.
Tonkin Consulting managing director
Ken Schalk says the project was the
most rewarding of his career.
‘‘Seeing the wetland take shape dur-
ing construction and then seeing the
way in which the community used and
valued the site was really satisfying,’’
he says. ‘‘I have often revisited the
wetland since to see the way in which
it has developed and to experience the
special place that was created.’’ ❯❯
Warriparinga Wetlands
❏ Project design by Tonkin Consulting
❏ Completed: December 1998
❏ Cost: $1.7 million
❏ Jobs: About 30
Glass of its ownA rare Amazonian waterlily sitsalongside glass columns bearing21⁄2 tonnes. But don’t worry, it’snot only safe, it’s beautiful
IT IS time for buildings engin-
eers to look at the aesthetics
of their projects as well as their
functions, Aurecon principal
structural engineer and tech-
nical director Niko Tsoukalas says.
He has developed the country’s first
architectural engineering course for
the University of Adelaide and he has
a passion – integrated design and
glass as a building material.
And that passion has already been
expressed throughout Adelaide.
The glass footbridge at the Festival
Centre, the spectacular dome at the
Adelaide Entertainment Centre and
the stunning facade about to grace
the South Australian Health and Med-
ical Research Institute all show what
integrated design and glass can do,
Mr Tsoukalas says.
‘‘It is stronger than concrete – you
have to reinforce concrete but you
can use glass without anything in it
when you know where and how to
use it,’’ he says.
Aurecon’s work on the Amazon
Waterlily Pavilion at the Adelaide
Botanic Garden did away with the
conventional aluminium frames,
using glass itself as a support.
A proper understanding of glass as
a building material – well-developed
and researched in Europe but rare in
Australia today – builds not only a
robust structure but a more beautiful
one, Mr Tsoukalas says.
‘‘It is not about it being the future
(of materials), it is about designing it
so you see through it, to improve the
experience of actually being in that
space. And this just takes that to the
next level.’’ ❯❯
Niko Tsoukalas at the
Amazon Waterlily Pavilion
in Adelaide Botanic
GardensPicture: Patrick Gorbunovs
ENGINEERS2 2-8
Who is Engineers Australia?Engineers Australia is the national forum for the advancement of engineering and the professional
development of our members. With more than 90,000 members embracing all disciplines of the
engineering team, Engineers Australia is the largest and the most diverse professional body for
engineers in Australia. Our chartered engineers are regarded as trusted professionals not only
in Australia, but worldwide.
Visit Engineers Australia via www.engineersaustralia.org.au or www.makeitso.org.au for more
information about us and the activities we undertake.
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THE ENGINE ROOM INFRASTRUCTURE
Reasons for$200m gridconnectionstill just asstrong today
Planning and constructing a177km power link betweenstates was more than agood commercial decision
TRANSENERGIE Australia pro-
vided a compelling reason for
the $200 million connection of
South Australian and Victorian
power grids – fewer blackouts during
the summer months.
The trading of power between the
states was always of interest as the
national energy market was growing,
but it remains relevant today as SA
ramps up non-baseload energy in the
form of wind power.
But while consumers are likely to revel
in the airconditioning and heating that
the link promises, the project itself
generated record levels of energy.
Project director Mike Farr said at the
time that burying the 220MW
interconnector rather than hanging it
from power lines would provide added
protection for the vital link.
‘‘It will not be susceptible to lightning
strikes, bushfires or to impact by
foreign objects as afflicts conventional
overhead transmission lines at the
moment,’’ Mr Farr said.
The planning for Murraylink’s burial
was not as straight forward.
Planning contractor KBR used a
geospatial information system to map
the corridor the project would use to
connect the sites, taking into account
the varying terrain – a process that
picked up awards for its planning and
management.
Murraylink passes through a number
of residential and farming areas in each
state, including horticultural, farming
and grazing districts.
It also crosses under the River Murray
and runs alongside the Murray Sunset
National Park and sections of the
Bookmark Biosphere Reserve.
‘‘This process gave exact figures for
how many trees and shrubs would be
affected by alternative proposed routes
through several sensitive areas,’’ the
company says. ❯❯
Power to the people
❏ Underground transmission lineconnecting Victorian and SouthAustralian electricity grids
❏ Planning and assessment undertakenby KBR
❏ Completed: 2003
❏ Cost: Project value of $200 million
❏ Jobs: 120
The days of the paddle-steamer are gone. Now it’s time for outdated river infrastructure to be updated
Opening and
closing the River
Murray locks now
takes hours, not
weeks
AS recent experiences attest,
Australia truly is a land of
drought and flooding rains.
And yet its river infrastructure is
still mired in a past that only
clumsily deals with these conditions.
The River Murray’s lock-and-weir system
was built in the 1920s and 1930s to allow
giant paddle-steamers negotiate the river,
holding back water to keep the river navi-
gable during dry spells and managing flows
during floods.
The same infrastructure is still in place, but
for very different purposes. Water is now
drawn from the river all year round for
irrigation, and tourism has blossomed along
the route – provided there is sufficient water
in place.
By 2001, SA Water, State Water NSW and
the Murray Darling Basin Authority recog-
nised there was a need to update structures
that had been managing the river for more
than 70 years.
Boats would move from weir to lock using
small pools at the side of the river. Water
levels could be dropped to allow the boat
to move downstream, or more water let in
to allow it to jump up to the next level.
While the passes could be removed to allow
boats through during floods, URS Australia
senior principal engineer Jerome Argue says
the process had two flaws – it could take
weeks and there was a risk it could take lives.
‘‘A diver had to go into the water to help
guide the barriers in or out, and they are
working in zero visibility,’’ he says.
‘‘They had fast water sweeping past them,
water that could be filled with logs and other
debris, they had little visibility and heavy steel
barriers being moved over their heads by a
crane.’’ No lives were lost, but Mr Argue says
the combined authorities recognised there
was a need for improvement.
URS designed the new system for the
navigable passes, a decade-long project with
contractors York Civil and Built Environs.
Like their predecessors, the new structures
can be lifted out during floods to allow boats
to flow freely, but take only hours to change,
not weeks.
The award-winning engineering work was
dependent on weather conditions, assisted
by low water levels and, more recently,
delayed by heavy floodwaters.
While there were challenges of building
innovative replacements on top of their
70-year-old counterparts, safety has been the
most valuable reward. ❯❯
WeirWeirWeirWeirWeirWeirWeirWeirWeirWeirWeirWeirWeirWeirhereherehereherehereherehereherehereherehereherehereheretotototototototototototototohelphelphelphelphelphelphelphelphelphelphelphelphelphelp
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DEFENCE THE ENGINE ROOM
Decoy drives missiles around the bend
The Nulka decoy, an Australian innova-
tion, is a vital element of ship defence.
STANDING on its tail and
enticing enemy missiles
away from their targets, its
creators describe Nulka as the
world’s most effective all-weather
anti-ship missile decoy.
A single Nulka Active Missile De-
coy can seduce multiple anti-ship
missiles away from their target with
an impressive array of hovering
rocket, autonomous system and
electronic technologies.
An Australian innovation, Nulka
started its life in the Government
Aircraft Factory before shifting to
BAE Systems Australia when the
US Navy joined the program in the
1980s.
Nulka produced its 1000th round
last October as part of its 12th
successive annual contract.
The Nulka decoy is an important
element of ship defence used by
the Australian, United States and
Canadian navies with a total pro-
gram value of more than $900
million.
Peter Steiner, BAE Systems Aus-
tralia production manger for wea-
pons systems, said a large amount
of production work was completed
by the decoy manufacturing team
at Edinburgh Parks in Adelaide.
The Nulka, standing about 2m tall,
is to be installed aboard the US
Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carriers
and it is already fitted to more than
130 ships in the US and Australian
navies. ‘‘Out in the ocean, a threat
might be detected and at that
particular time other defence sys-
tems would activate,’’ Mr Steiner
said.
‘‘If they don’t achieve their objec-
tive, the Nulka is deployed.’’
Mr Steiner said the Nulka’s
standout hovering rocket tech-
nology enabled it to hover long
enough to attract a threat away
from the ship.
In October last year, BAE Systems
celebrated the production of the
1000th active missile decoy round.
BAE Systems Australia chief
executive Jim McDowell said, at the
time, the decoy was a collaboration
between government and industry
on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
‘‘This is a truly impressive piece of
engineering – revolutionary when it
first appeared on the scene and still
unique,’’ he said.
Nulka is designed to be used as
part of a multi-layer defence system
or for stand-alone ship protection.
‘‘I’m an ex-defence force person
myself and I get a lot of satisfaction
from this work,’’ Mr Steiner said.
‘‘I know what it’s like to be in the
defence force and to use this kind
of equipment.
‘‘It’s quite motivating.
‘‘I would say that on behalf of most
people here, that you are defending
and protecting people out there.’’ ❯❯
– Belinda Willis
Best-selling video
WHEN the RAAF AP-3C Orion
aircraft used in the Middle
East were fitted with the
capability to transmit high-
speed, full-motion video to
Australian and Coalition ground forces, it
gave them unprecedented support in search-
ing and reporting on suspicious activity.
After its installation, the Minister for Defence
was quoted as saying the capability meant
RAAF Orion crews had ‘‘won great respect
from our allies’’, reflected ‘‘in the demand for
their real-time intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance capabilities’’.
BAE Systems, in a four-and-a-half month
turnaround from project approval to aircraft
prototype, installed the first Operational Sup-
port Tactical Common Data Link (OS TCDL)
and Star Safire High Definition (SSHD) capa-
bility for the RAAF AP-3C Orion.
A team of about 45 people in Adelaide and
Melbourne completed the project.
Since the initial $2 million contract to fit the
systems to four AP-3C aircraft, BAE has been
awarded work to extend that capability to the
full fleet of 18 Orion aircraft.
Trevor Woolley, a BAE project manager in
the Aerospace Systems Integration Division,
said a US-based system was installed to
ensure images could be shared with Co-
alition forces.
‘‘But the design for it going into our aircraft
was unique,’’ Mr Woolley said.
‘‘The system allows real-time imagery to be
transmitted from the aircraft to the ground
for the use of forces on the ground.’’
Since the introduction of OS TCDL and
SSHD, the AP-3C Orion has become the
platform of choice, particularly in support of
Special Operations Teams in the Middle East.
Officer Commanding No 92 Wing, Warren
McDonald, said BAE Systems engineering
outcomes for OS TCDL ‘‘raised the status
and excellence of Australian engineering’’. ❯❯
Full flight
The best eyes in the Middle Eastare quick and well-designed,writes Belinda Willis
BAE project manager Trevor Woolley and,
left, the AP-3C Orion with video capability
❏ Operational Support Tactical Common
Data Link (OS TCDL)
❏ BAE Systems Australia
❏ Completed: February 2006, first aircraft
modification June 2007, all aircraft
completed 2008
❏ Cost: more than $2 million
❏ Jobs: 39 people in Melbourne and
Adelaide
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THE ENGINE ROOM ENVIRONMENT
Water bonanzaflow-on bonusto vines, fruittrees, flowersand nut crops
A small project has deliveredmore than a few good bottlesof red, writes Belinda Willis
SCARCE water resources have
bred irrigation invention in one
of the state’s decorated projects
operating in Willunga.
The Willunga Basin Water Company
kicked off in the 1990s when 15 water
users joined forces to tackle resource
challenges from a new angle.
Their aim was to build a pipeline to
the Christies Beach Wastewater Treat-
ment Plant, 10 kilometres north of the
Willunga Basin, to reclaim treated
water spilling into Gulf St Vincent.
Now, the privately funded, owned and
operated project has led to the water
being used for drip irrigation of vines,
fruit trees, nut crops and flowers via
120 kilometres of pipeline in the Mc-
Laren Vale region.
The reclaimed water, now with more
than 150 users, is cheaper than bore
water and safe for drip irrigation – but
that is just the start, says Willunga
Basin Water Company operations
manager Glen Templeman.
‘‘We are looking further down the
track for urban resources, not just a
third pipe solution,’’ he says. ‘‘We’re
also looking at roadside and verge
recovery to improve the process.’’
Growers irrigate by turning on their
tap, with no need for storage, power
or pumps on farms.
The water is supplied at a pressure
that suits most on-farm drip irrigation
systems and there is no water ordering
system. A user accesses the water
supply at a mutually agreed flow rate
and each outlet has a flow meter with
water usage logged continuously.
Around 10,000ML of water is treated
at the wastewater treatment plant each
year and about 40 per cent is used by
the Willunga Basin Water Company.
The scheme, which began operating
in 1999, now incorporates seven pump
stations, three buffering storages and
more than 120km of pipeline, and
manages a further three major above
ground storages. ❯❯
Green solutiongoing to waste
Protecting the pristine Port Lincoln coastline propelled plans for an innovative solution, Belinda Willis writes
AECOM sector leader for civil and municipal
infrastructure for Australia and New Zealand
Philip Verco is delighted with the ‘‘good result
for the communities’’ Picture: Brenton Edwards
IN 2001, AECOM mapped plans with
numerous stakeholders to harvest
treated effluent from the Port Lincoln
Wastewater Treatment Plant and use
it to water sporting grounds, ovals and
reserves throughout the city.
‘‘We’re in the driest state in the driest
continent in the world and to have a sus-
tainable solution like this is a real bonus
and a credit to the community,’’ Philip
Verco, AECOM sector leader for civil and
municipal infrastructure for Australia and New
Zealand, says.
The first job for AECOM (formerly Maunsell
Australia) was to create a scoping study,
drawing input from the city of Port Lincoln,
the seafood and fishing industry, SA Water,
the Environment Protection Authority, the
Lincoln Lakes Development Company and
the Aboriginal community.
A detailed design project was created to
build tertiary treatment extensions to the Port
Lincoln wastewater treatment plant, to pro-
duce Class A effluent along with an irrigation
distribution network and water storage.
A link was also provided within the designs
to a proposed new wastewater treatment
plant at Port Lincoln Tuna Processors.
This has since enabled treated effluent
from this factory to be directed to the irri-
gation scheme.
Mr Verco says the treatment plant, pump
station and first stage of network construction
and supply tanks to Ravendale Oval and the
Port Lincoln racecourse were completed
in 2003.
Extensions to the system were completed
in 2006 and 2009.
‘‘The result is the reduction of effluent going
straight into the ocean and the adverse
impacts of that being removed is a real
bonus; and, clearly, it also means parks that
wouldn’t have received watering have now
– and that’s a good result for the communi-
ties,’’ Mr Verco says.
It has also reduced the impact of dis-
charging effluent to the sea, such as
algal blooms caused by nutrients, the
dieback of sea grass and possible threats
to aquaculture.
There is also a reduced reliance on
mains water.
Mr Verco says some of the challenges
included ensuring sufficient flow to meet
demand and managing salinity levels of
water used for irrigation along with public
health and safety concerns.
AECOM associate director Steve Mitchell
says the city of Port Lincoln’s commitment
to extending the scheme to additional re-
serves proved the scheme’s viability and has
led to further reductions in effluent being
discharged into the sea. ❯❯
Willunga Basin
❏ Reclaimed water scheme❏ Completed: May 1999❏ Cost: $8 million with no government
funding. Total funding for extensionshas been extended to $33 million
❏ Customers: 15 initially, now 155consuming more than 5Gl
❏ Jobs: More than that created by Mobilin the southern region
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Salisbury Council’s water guruColin Pitman just won’t give upon his crusade to deliver betterwater to the community, writesRussell Emmerson
ASYSTEM of 13 interconnected
wetlands, purifying stormwater
to sell to industry, just wasn’t
enough for Salisbury Council.
The latest additions to their net-
work at Pooraka and Parafield Airport offers
a new approach that processes 10 times the
amount of water for one-third of the cost.
The $15.4 million concept starts with the
basics of wetland processing – diverting
stormwater through filters to remove debris
and pollutants, then returning it to under-
ground aquifers for storage and reuse.
But our future involves greater urbanisation,
greater centralisation, meaning cities will
have less space to hold vital wetlands.
The City of Salisbury’s vertical wetlands offer
a system with a footprint 12 times smaller
than the traditional wetlands but one that will
harvest, treat, store and distribute up to
1300ML every year.
City projects director Colin Pitman has long
spruiked the council’s water management,
a project of 13 sites connected by 120km
of pipes that provides industry with non-
potable water that is cheaper than that
provided by SA Water – and yet still turns
a profit for the council.
And there is no doubt he remains proud
of the next steps the council is taking.
‘‘We are returning the water to the land from
whence it came. It is really the science of
localism,’’ he says.
‘‘We now know the water we are putting
into the wetlands is better on average than
the water received into Adelaide’s reservoirs.
It actually raises the quality.’’
There is yet work to be done on the vertical
system, he says, including research into
which plants, filters and processes would
perform better, but there remains an endur-
ing belief he is helping create the next gener-
ation of water security for the community. ❯❯
Going undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing undergroundGoing underground
Colin Pitman in one of the vertical
wetlands he designed in Pooraka.
Picture: Brooke Whatnall
WATER THE ENGINE ROOM
visit the website today www.engquest.org.au
Join the educational fun in maths, science
and technology.
Each student receives a participation prize and colourful merit
certii cate.
g offers a great choice in student projects, including the new ‘Rebuild a community’ project.
g features a new l ash entry animation and fun IWB interactives, games and quizzes for students.
g includes curriculum-linked education support material.
g engineer volunteers available to provide support via the online forum and where possible, through special school visits.
EngQuest 2011:
ENGQUEST28-7/3091908
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THE ENGINE ROOM WATER AND ENVIRONMENT
Leadingway onwaterlifeline
Ambitious schemekeeps salt out ofour water system
SA Water workers
laying pipes in the River
Murray Salt
Interception Scheme
GIVING an Engineering Excellence
award to the River Murray Salt
Interception Scheme is more akin
to awarding a lifetime achieve-
ment award, or, perhaps more accurately,
a lifeline achievement.
The problem lies in our intensive use of
water from the Murray Darling Basin for
irrigation, a practice that before 1990
dumped more than 1200 tonnes of salt into
the state’s lifeline each day.
The solution lies in a series of salt-
interception schemes, which form the world’s
largest groundwater pumping scheme.
SA Water principal engineer, salt intercep-
tion, Peter Forward said the first of the
schemes was rolled out east of Waikerie in
1990. The entire $170 million scheme now
covers 200km of pipes.
‘‘People know the River Murray is a problem
but don’t know what we have achieved,’’ he
says. ‘‘The drought changed that. We would
have had such high salinity if we didn’t have
this scheme.’’
Highly saline water is pumped from bores
before it enters the river and travels to
population centres and is pushed into evap-
oration basins outside the river valley.
The 20-year scheme is nearing the end of
its major-project status. The Murtho scheme
near Renmark is to be commissioned at the
end of this year. The first, $2 million, stage
of the Pike scheme between Berri and
Renmark has just been completed. Several
hundred jobs have been created in construc-
tion and 25 people keep the system running.
Mr Forward says the challenge now does
not lie with engineers. ‘‘We are coming to
the end of the major project as it is not
economical to do more things. The next
challenge is operating the schemes in an
economical and efficient manner.’’ ❯❯
Happy event
THE opening of the $98 million Bol-
ivar High Salinity project in 2004
had one very welcome outcome – the
closure of the Port Adelaide
wastewater treatment plant.
Chief engineer of KBR’s water engin-
eering division Kevin Yerrell, who man-
aged the design of the project, said the
impact of the 80-year-old Port Adelaide
sewage treatment plant was significant.
‘‘The problem was that the area is very
old and the sewers leak in a lot of saline
groundwater,’’ he says.
‘‘But the real plus of the closure is that
the treated wastewater discharge was
taken out of the Port River and there
are no longer red tides (algal blooms).’’
Waste plant turns sludge to water
THE Christies Beach treatment plant
upgrade already has a record to hold
high. The introduction of new filters –
or membrane bioreactors – able to process
22.5ML a day of waste water puts it at the
18th largest such plant in the world, not a
bad option when running against plants in
the Middle East and China.
But it also has a local outcome that will see
it readily welcomed by nearby residents.
The former sewage treatment process relied
on evaporation as a key process for drying
solid waste from the treatment process,
establishing sludge lagoons on the banks of
the Onkaparinga River.
The new process, part of a $272 million
upgrade, instead uses centrifuges to mech-
anically dewater the biosolids within an
enclosed building with full odour scrubbing
of ventilation air, while the new filters signifi-
cantly improve the recycled water, all while
boosting its processing power by 50 per cent
to 45ML per day.
‘‘The area is so developed there was
nowhere to go other than on the existing
site,’’ construction company KBR’s chief
water engineer Kevin Yerrell said. ‘‘The wow
factor is the abandonment of the sludge
lagoons, cutting the odours and the damage
to the river without alienating residents.’’
THE ADVERTISER I ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA (SA) 2011 21
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LANDMARKS THE ENGINE ROOM
An almightyachievementThey may not make headlines, but small-scale engineering projectscan bring great satisfaction to engineers and communities. GiuseppeTauriello explains how consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff helpedbring an Adelaide Hills church back to the future
SOMETIMES it is not the largest or
most profitable engineering pro-
jects that are the most rewarding.
The St Andrews church in Strath-
albyn is a local landmark. Completed in its
present form in 1869, the church is a focal
point for the community and is an important
state heritage asset.
But in 1956, two spirelets atop the bell tower
were lost during a severe winter storm. For
45 years the church was missing a critical
piece of its rich history before all four spirelets
were finally replaced in 2001.
The seven-year effort started in 1994 when
a church restoration committee was formed.
Then, following years of community fund-
raising and input, the bell tower was finally
returned to its former glory utilising the
engineering ingenuity of consulting firm Par-
sons Brinckerhoff.
Principal structural engineer Peter Statton,
who lives in the surrounding hills community,
has a personal attachment to the church and
led the engineering team.
‘‘The church was quite significant to the
township and still is,’’ he says.
‘‘We really needed to engage with the
restoration committee and understand the
knowledge of the local community to get
them involved. We engaged contractors from
the local district area and gave the commu-
nity ownership.’’
To replicate the intricate detail of the original
spirelets, engineers conducted research on
the history of the church in consultation with
Heritage SA and state archives. Another
major challenge was to minimise disruption
to the congregation.
The firm maximised off-site work by pos-
itioning the spirelets and crosses into a steel
frame which could then be secured to the
bell tower in one lift. The resulting structure
weighed 11.2 tonnes and the base frame was
ultimately hidden by the parapet walls.
‘‘We came up with a design solution that
had minimal impact and which enabled it to
be lifted all in one piece,’’ Mr Statton says.
‘‘It was unique in that sense.’’
During 16 years working with Parsons
Brinckerhoff, Mr Statton has been involved
in several major transport, water and infra-
structure projects and is currently leading
the structural design of the Te Mihi geo-
thermal power station in Taupo, on New
Zealand’s north island.
But he says the St Andrews project
remains a highlight of his career.
‘‘While the job was not particularly large,
it was satisfying in terms of giving to the
community,’’ he says. ❯❯
Peter Statton in
Adelaide and, inset,
the church in
Strathalbyn
Main picture:
Campbell Brodie
A ‘significant’ projectThe Adelaide-Crafers Highwaydid more for South Australiathan merely cut travel times
ADELAIDE-CRAFERS Highway pro-
ject director Luigi Rossi won’t shy
away from the significance of the
8.3km road his team completed in 2000.
Most people value the 10 minutes it cuts
from their journey or the added safety of
the six lanes, but Mr Luigi sees the stretch
as no less than a testament to South
Australia. ‘‘We achieved 8km of very
complex roadworks for $150 million in
2000,’’ he says.
‘‘I know we have moved on but you
wouldn’t be able to do that anywhere else
in Australia for that money, and we
definitely punch above our weight.
‘‘Sometimes people don’t appreciate we
can deliver projects more efficiently here
than anywhere else. It is incredible value.’’
Describing the project as a stretch of
road shows the point has been missed.
The team hacked and exploded their way
through mountains, filled in gullies and
ravines up to 30m deep, all while keeping
employees and 35,000 passing motorists
safe every day of the five-year-long pro-
ject. And for those doubting the signifi-
cance of the challenge, two million cubic
metres of material was excavated includ-
ing 100,000 cubic metres from each
tunnel – a process challenged by geology
that changed as the work progressed.
Mr Rossi began working on the Swanport
Bridge on the Murray River and is now
project director of the state’s largest-ever
road infrastructure, the $843 million South
Rd Superway.
But the Adelaide-Crafers project, with its
dual tunnels and dramatic ravines that
serve as a gateway to Adelaide, remains
one of the state’s iconic engineering feats.
‘‘It has definitely been a once in a lifetime
opportunity,’’ he said. ❯❯
INSPIRE the world’s best teams to CREATE
innovative solutions for physical assets that ENHANCE
our communities for future generations.
Apply online at www.pbworld.com
Contact Lynne Norton to discuss employment opportunities
[email protected] or 08 8405 4382
Join Parsons Brinckerhoff to create engineering wonders of the future.
B1809
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THE ENGINE ROOM REMEDIATION
Cementing a clean, green future
Adelaide Brighton Cement factory has significantly reduced its emissions
ADELAIDE Brighton Cement
has reduced its carbon di-
oxide emissions by more
than 250,000 tonnes annually
thanks to a materials handling,
storage and injection system de-
veloped by Parsons Brinckerhoff.
In 2005 and 2006, the system
was built to burn recycled com-
bustible waste materials from
demolition sites in the calciner at
ABC’s Birkenhead plant. The aim
of the Adelaide Brighton Alterna-
tive Fuels Project – Towards Zero
Waste – was to replace a propor-
tion of the natural gas fuel used
and ABC now saves 1.2
petajoules of natural gas each
year – the equivalent of the annual
gas consumption of about
140,000 SA households.
SA Zero Waste Authority chief
executive Vaughan Levitzke says:
‘‘This innovative project has made
a major contribution to South
Australia’s zero waste objectives
and showcases the triple bottom
line benefits of recycling.’’
The use of recycled waste as a
supplementary fuel source has
also enabled ABC to divert
200,000 tonnes of waste from
landfill each year. Feed for the
plant is supplied by ResourceCo,
which established a recycled pro-
cessing plant near ABC’s Birken-
head site and employs 40 people.
‘‘PB has provided systems and
skills to allow ABC to achieve a
positive economic benefit and a
signi f icant contr ibut ion to
greenhouse gas reduction,’’ says
cement and lime projects man-
ager Guy Martin. ❯❯
– Alexandra Economou
Kilburn’s Jack Watkins Reserve is no longer the toxic wasteland it once was, Alexandra Economou writes
Parkbornout ofhellhole
Parsons Brinckerhoff major projects executive Geoff Kneebone was given the task of cleaning a toxic wasteland – and created a refuge. Picture: Nigel Parsons.
The former Australian National railyard at Islington
WHEN Parsons Brinckerhoff
began working on the for-
mer Australian National rail-
yard site at Islington in
1999, it knew of the risks.
The site contained large quantities of friable
asbestos, heavy metals, arsenic, solid cyan-
ides and hydrocarbons – and was recog-
nised as one of the state’s largest and most
hazardous environmental rehabilitation pro-
jects in recent years.
Parsons Brinckerhoff major projects execu-
tive Geoff Kneebone says the initial brief was
to simply clean up the site.
‘‘Anything other than that we achieved was
a bonus,’’ he says. ‘‘We turned it from a
simple remediation project to a project with
significant social benefits.’’
Mr Kneebone says a great deal of prep-
aration was needed for the clean-up.
‘‘You don’t rush in, you analyse every cubic
metre before you go and make decisions,’’
he says. ‘‘We had to understand exactly what
was there. There was up to 100-year-old
ancient railway waste including lagging and
asbestos. The primary (consideration) was
safety management through eliminating the
likelihood of asbestos emissions.’’
When it came time to remove the asbestos,
the site had to be doused with water sprays
and mists to ensure the asbestos fibres did
not become airborne. Asbestos meters and
dust catchers were also placed around the
site’s perimeter. Parsons Brinckerhoff
worked in partnership with the Port Adelaide
Enfield Council on the development of the
12ha park, and a significant portion of the
funding for the project was used to land-
scape the park. This included automatic
irrigation, vegetation, walking trails, carpark-
ing, lights, footpaths and a playground.
Property values of the nearby Housing Trust
residences were also enhanced by the
redevelopment, with the park providing a
‘‘buffer’’ between the residential areas and
the remaining workshops facility.
The remaining portion of the former waste
dump area was made suitable for industrial
redevelopment.
The project is considered a significant
engineering achievement because it has
benefited the site owner, the local community
and the state.
Jack Watkins Reserve, in Churchill Rd, was
officially opened in 2003. It was named after
Jack Watkins who worked in the construction
industry and campaigned for years to raise
awareness of asbestos dangers.
Mr Watkins was a former president of the
Asbestos Diseases Society of South Australia
and worked with local residents to urge the
state and federal governments to clean up
the Islington site.
The park is a tribute to Mr Watkins, who
died in 2007 and workers who have died from
asbestos-related diseases. ❯❯
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IMAGINE IF WE DIDN’T RISE TO THE CHALLENGETHROUGHOUT 2011, WE WILL SHOWCASE HUMANITARIAN ENGINEERING STORIES-
AND HOPEFULLY WILL INSPIRE MORE PEOPLE TO GET INVOLVED .
REGISTER
F RUPDATES
Help Engineers Australia make it so the world is a better place.To learn more and get involved go to www.makeitso.org.au/humanitarian
11-0772SPFE.
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Passing the baton - Engineering Australia’s Future
Passing the baton - Engineering Australia’s Future
11-0772SPFE.