Aussie councils and utility managers have never before enjoyed such luxury of choice when it comes to trenchless sewer and stormwater repairs.
Today, the choices include ultra violet cured liners, now readily accessible, along with extruded onsite UPVC.
Blow-in inverted liners and wind-in products have also become popular, and for good reason.
Each option provides unique benefits for various applications, and they’re invaluable to the managers who maintain our seldom seen, but essential drainage assets.
Additional choices include permanent point repair technologies, from inflatable fibreglass patches to internal mechanical pipe seals, such as Quicklocks, which were recently used in the township of Woori Yallock on Melbourne’s eastern fringe.
The journey to using Quicklocks all started with a routine CCTV fact finding mission.
This flowed on to become a diverse product trial for a small drainage rehabilitation project under the scrutiny of the Yarra Ranges Shire Council’s drainage officer Gary Whitehead.
Mr Whitehead is a well known drainage industry veteran, with over 45 years experience in council and water board infrastructure.
He is a pioneering drainage expert and adamant to leave a quality managed, sustainable and reliable drainage system as his legacy – but with a staggering 2,500 square kilometre work site, incorporating 55 suburbs and townships, this is no easy task.
Following a decade of drainage maintenance issues, and on the back of diligent CCTV analysis, a sharp forward thinking rehabilitation project was devised to trial and evaluate the latest trenchless techniques.
This process was carried out in conjunction with Brendan Tucker, recently appointed Operations Manager at M.Tucker & Sons, who specialise in trenchless drain rehabilitation and are active in the Australian Society of Trenchless Technologies.
CCTV footage from inside a rehabilitated drain.
The use of Quicklock seals, along with fibreglass patches to permanently repair many easement and under road assets not viable to reline, provided the council with a successful rehabilitation method.
The program also provided council with considerable cost savings when compared with traditional excavation methods, which opened up capital for other urgent projects.
Further significant cost savings were realised by negating the usual unsightly repairs to road surfaces, and the major disruption to residents that generally comes with open cut rehabilitation.
In addition, for the first time, the council also made the decision to trial liner end-seals to all the liners installed on the project.
The new liners were cut back by an additional 140mm from the pit face, and Quicklock liner end-seals were installed. This represents a real change of thinking from using an applied sealant or grout, to using a solid stainless steel mechanical seal relying on a proven EPDM rubber seal.
The finish was professional and will not wear out or leak due to a loss in adhesion. The Quicklock liner endseal protects the expensive liner at its most vulnerable point and is not affected by high pressure water jetting.
