The Engine Room

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7 14 19Building Australian defences

Protecting scarce resources

Driving learning

THE WONDERS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERING 2000-2010

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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

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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

[email protected] or

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

[email protected]

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

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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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Engineers Australia proudly supports Science Alive!

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. ❯❯

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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

AE

W W

EE

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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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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

20 THE ADVERTISER I ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA (SA) 2011

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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.