The Water Corporation has replaced a 5.8 km section of the historic Goldfields Pipeline near Meckering (WA).
WA Water Minister Mia Davies said the $14.6M project involved replacing a section of the original dual pipeline with a single pipeline buried beneath the ground.
“While most of the Goldfields Pipeline remains above ground, some sections of it such as this part have suffered over the years and need to be replaced or repaired to provide safe and secure drinking water to people in the Agricultural region and the Goldfields,” Ms Davies said.
The Goldfields Pipeline remains the Water Corporation’s single largest asset today.
The original 557 km pipeline was built by CY O’Connor in 1903 to transport water from Mundaring to Kalgoorlie. At first it only supplied the towns of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie but over the years was extended to cover vast areas of agricultural farmland and the Eastern Goldfields.
Today it feeds into a network of 8,000 km of pipes, supplying drinking water to more than 100,000 people.
This section of pipeline was last replaced in 1968 after the Meckering earthquake. At that time the pipe was replaced with original CY O’Connor locking bar pipe, which was sourced from Coolgardie.
As outlined in the recent State Budget, the Water Corporation will invest $30M in the Goldfields and Agricultural region in 2014-15.
