Water Main Adjustment for Sydney Metro Northwest

Sydney Metro is Australia’s largest public transport infrastructure project. Sydney Metro Northwest was built to be the first fully automated metro rail system in Australia and opened to customers in the first half of 2019.

Scope of Works

UEA was awarded the Tallawong Road water main adjustment project under its Sydney Water W2 supplier listing. The project involved the turnkey asset relocation of the existing mains for the cut and cover rail construction on Sydney Metro Northwest rail project. UEA installed HDPE PN20 pipes, performing five parallel HDD bores through 90mpa Minchinbury sandstone using a Vermeer D300x500 and Vermeer D100x120. The PN20 pipes ranged from 800mm to 280mm and replaced the existing water mains, which had to be removed to facilitate the installation of the Sydney Metro Rail line. UEA was contracted to deliver both the trenchless and trenched components of work.

Challenges

Working in such a busy construction area with significant plant and equipment was difficult, but excellent planning by UEA’s management team in conjunction with the client ensured the whole process went smoothly. Issues with tracking the HDD crossing were overcome by utilising a steering engineer and provided a significant level of accuracy at the same time.

Completion

This project presented a number of challenges from the onset, primarily ensuring that the five parallel bores were constructed in a tight 3mx3m window. Through the HDD crew’s skilled and professional operation, and with the assistance of a steering engineer, UEA completed the works on time and on budget.