Amīria, McConnell Dowell’s micro tunnel boring machine (mTBM) beat her previous project record by 80-metres on 20 November 2020.
The AVN2500 mTBM once again set a new pipe-jacking record for the longest single drive in the Southern Hemisphere by a TBM greater than 2.6 metres in diameter. The project set a 1,216-metre record on completing the second drive for the pipeline earlier in the year.
Richard Atkin, the Hūnua 4, Section 11 Project Manager, said “I couldn’t have asked for a more experienced tunnelling team to successfully navigate through Auckland’s challenging volcanic fields which comprise of hard basalt (up to 160MPa). To gain another record for this project after 18 months of tunnelling, across three individual drives, has put the team in good spirits as we near the finish line.”
The new record is a hard-earned achievement for the team delivering the 3.5-kilometre watermain upgrade for Watercare. The final 1,296-metre drive consisted mostly of basalt rock and tough clay ground conditions, but despite the geological challenges, the crew completed the final drive in less than three months.
Justin Shepherd, McConnell Dowell’s Tunnelling & Underground Group Technical Director, praises the efforts made on Hūnua 4, Section 11 by saying “McConnell Dowell challenges both the norm and ourselves by thinking creatively, engaging our multi-discipline specialists, embracing new technology, and driving continuous improvement through our teams and projects. This project, which we believe to be the longest large diameter pipe-jacked drive through ‘continuous hard-rock conditions’ in the world, exemplifies McConnell Dowell’s approach to successfully delivering award-winning, and record-breaking, tunnelling and underground work.”
With 2.9 kilometres of tunnelling now completed, Amīria, one of McConnell Dowell New Zealand’s three mTBMs will be refurbished by our in-house mechanical and maintenance team. The next step for the project team is the installation of the 1,575 mm diameter concrete-lined steel (CLS) watermain pipes inside the tunnel which is planned for early 2021.
McConnell Dowell’s proposed trenchless methodology won the contract to design and construct the final section of the Hūnua 4 pipeline in 2018. Rather than digging trenches through some of Auckland’s busiest roads, the tunnelling approach meant traffic continued to flow between Epsom and the city as the pipeline was built underneath.
McConnell Dowell is proud to have won the Health and Safety award at the CCNZ Canterbury Contractor of the Year Award for the Lyttelton Deluge Upgrade Project based in Christchurch.
Members of the project team attended the awards evening and it was great for our team to be recognised by the industry for what is truly a great reflection of everyone working together to complete this high-risk project.
Due to the live tunnel environment the upgrade was subject to significant HSE risks, the judging panel commended how we continually challenged ourselves to develop a creative methodology in order to achieve the scope, all whilst following the highest health and safety standards. The award was based on our safety record on the contract (60% of marks) and the company in general (40%). The project recorded both zero Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (RIFR) and Lost Time Injury (LTI) Frequency Rates.
The Lyttelton Tunnel Deluge and Associated Works project included removal of 2.2 km of concrete asbestos water supply pipe and replacement with a stainless-steel pipe, installation of a new CCC sewer pressure main to service surrounding communities, installation and commissioning of a deluge fire suppression system within the tunnel including a dedicated reservoir, major upgrades to the tunnel’s communications, public address systems, and new CCTV system, construction of a new fire pump house with two diesel powered pumps and improvements to tunnel ventilation fan drives.
McConnell Dowell announced today that it has been awarded contracts and granted notice to proceed by FGEN LNG Corporation (FGEN), a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Gen Corporation (First Gen), to build and deliver the Interim Offshore Terminal Project ("IOT Project") at the latter's Batangas LNG Terminal located in the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas, Philippines.
Under the contracts, McConnell Dowell will undertake the Engineering, Procurement and Construction of both the Multiple Purpose Jetty and Onshore Gas Receiving Facility. This award builds upon McConnell Dowell’s long history of delivering complex marine infrastructure across South East Asia, and the new Multiple Purpose Jetty will be a permanent modification of the existing liquid fuel jetty which McConnell Dowell constructed for First Gen in 1998.
Once completed, the IOT Project will allow First Gen to accelerate the introduction of LNG into the country and serve the natural gas requirements of existing and future gas-fired power plants in the Philippines.
McConnell Dowell Managing Director for South East Asia, Thomas Dockray highlighted that this energy infrastructure project is one of national significance and is extremely proud to further grow the working relationship with First Gen through the delivery of the IOT Project. It will provide many benefits to local communities and play a critical role in ensuring the energy security of the Luzon Grid and the Philippines.
“The selection of McConnell Dowell reinforces our technical expertise, engineering innovation, hands-on knowledge and extensive international experience in building similar LNG facilities. We work well with First Gen and value the importance of our relationship as we launch and deliver a project of this magnitude.” Thomas stated.
“Some of our key project delivery partners include, First Balfour, GHD and LogiCamms. They will help us to deliver the overall project on time and to the desired standard. Our delivery partners will also bring additional qualified, skilled and local experience to the project.” Thomas added.
First Gen has completed a significant amount of pre-development work to allow the project to achieve an expeditious start. Today’s announcement marks an important milestone and engineering and procurement activities will commence immediately with the initial site construction activities scheduled to take place over the coming months.
McConnell Dowell is proud to announce that ‘Piper’ the micro tunnel boring machine (MTBM) and the team have completed tunnelling on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island for the Westland Milk Products Marine Outfall project.
Piper was fresh from another McConnell Dowell tunnelling project (Snells Algies Ocean Outfall project) in the North Island, where the team set a new world record of 2,021m for the longest single drive by a Direct Pipe® MTBM earlier this year.
The project team used this world leading experience, completing the 845m of tunnelling and installing the 832m steel outer casing for the wastewater pipeline in just over 1 month, two weeks ahead of the construction programme.
The Direct Pipe® tunnelling method was chosen to mitigate the impact of work on the delicate coastal ecosystem.
The scope of the works includes:
- Constructing a 60m long, 6m wide and 7.5m deep sheet piled MTBM launch trench.
- Completing an 845m micro tunnel Direct Pipe® drive.
- Installing 832m of steel casing pipe through the Direct Pipe® thrusting technique that remains buried and submerged at the seaward end.
- Slip-lining installation of the HDPE carrier pipeline into the steel casing pipe.
- An ocean recovery of the MTBM followed by installation of the marine diffuser.
- Construction of an on-shore deaeration chamber and carrier pipe connections.
To retrieve Piper the MTBM, specialist excavation equipment sourced from Malaysia will be used to expose Piper under the seabed. A dive team will then disconnect Piper and tow her to Greymouth Port where she will be lifted from the water.
Once complete this project will be the first ocean outfall on the West Coast of the South Island and will provide a new ocean discharge point for the treated wastewater from the Westland Milk Products facility.
Final marine operations will be completed in early 2021.
McConnell Dowell is pleased to announce that we have been awarded the Targeted Asset Renewal Programme (TARP) contract at the Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant in Auckland, New Zealand.
The award of this project continues McConnell Dowell’s long-term partnership with Watercare.
A three to five-year contract, McConnell Dowell will provide onsite assistance in the upgrading and refurbishment of critical Watercare assets based at Māngere WWTP, ensuring the successful treatment of the growing region’s wastewater. The work is being delivered by our in-house Mechanical Division which has extensive experience in asset renewal, planned maintenance, and fabrication.
The works consist of the refurbishment of:
- Eight digesters
- Twelve primary sedimentation tanks
- Two gravity thickeners
- Three dissolved air flotation systems.
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