In July 2005, Sydney Water awarded an Alliance contract to carry out a significant program of water main renewals throughout the Greater Sydney Region. One of the key objectives for this Alliance, of which Veolia Water Network Services (VWNS) is a partner, was to ensure value for money outcomes were realised for Sydney Water. This not only related to cost savings, but also to implementing best practice management in areas of environment, safety, community, quality and productivity.

VWNS is a provider of trenchless capabilities on the Alliance including assisting the program with renewing water mains by pipe bursting on a large scale. This has provided an opportunity to showcase new and innovative methodologies of pipe bursting to ensure value for money is recognised for the Alliance partners. Due to the need to deliver such a large scale program, the machinery chosen by VWNS to undertake the pipe bursting required several features including: user-friendly, powerful, fast and economic operation; and excellent after-market service and to be compact due to the location of the water mains that are often situated in tight spaces such as on footpaths and between trees and driveways. To achieve this goal there was only one choice, which was a Grundoburst 400G hydraulic pipe burster from TT Asia Pacific.

TT Asia Pacific Pty Ltd is the Asia Pacific region distributor of the well known Tracto-Technik range of equipment. Tracto-Technik is the manufacturer of the ‘Grundo’ range of trenchless equipment and has top of the line equipment for any project.

As the benefits of pipe bursting water mains throughout the Sydney area became apparent, renewals undertaken by the Alliance utilising this method increased from around 15 per cent to 50 per cent. Due to the success VWNS had with the Grundoburst 400G and the after-market support from TT Asia Pacific, the company decided to purchase a second Grundoburst 400G. As the pipe diameters being renewed increased, more power was required so a Grundoburst 800G was purchased from TT Asia Pacific. This added to the fleet of TT Asia Pacific equipment which now includes pneumatic pipe bursters and a 10 tonne capstan winch for bursting specific projects where the hydraulic equipment is not viable.

To date, VWNS has assisted the Alliance to replace over 152,000 metres of pipe, ranging in size from 125 mm to 355 mm, using only three Grundoburst machines from TT Asia Pacific. This has been carried out in just over three years. The success VWNS has seen using these machines has been complemented by the level of experience of the company's project managers, as well as the trained and experienced operators, working in a close technical relationship with TT Asia Pacific.

A key benefit with the Grundoburst machines is the ‘QuickLock Rods’, which enable VWNS operators to insert and retrieve rods with effortless ease, which is a key when renewing a high volume of metres. The machine also eliminates the risk of wrist and elbow injury from repetitive screwing of rods, which was paramount in the decision to purchase Grundoburst machines over others in market.

In 2007, VWNS took delivery of the Grundoburst 1250G which, with a 125 tonne pullback force, is the largest pipe bursting machine in the southern hemisphere and capable of replacing pipelines up to 600 mm in diameter. This machine was used to pipe burst part of a trunk main package of works on the Alliance, which consisted of renewing 375 mm CICL with 450 mm HDPE. Over 3,500 metres of trunk main has been renewed over the last two years, with the majority of these mains located under some of Sydney’s busiest roadways.

Due to the cost of replacing concrete roadways, and the community and environmental impacts faced in some of these projects, using the Grundoburst 1250G has enabled VWNS to renew the trunk mains with minimal restoration and community impact. VWNS New South Wales Manager Todd Moeser said “To assist in delivering a program of work of this size and to meet the contractual milestones, we had to have staff and machinery that was up to the task.

“From VWNS’ perspective, we believe that the Tracto-Technik Grundoburst equipment supplied by TT Asia Pacific has certainly met these expectations, and with the power and speed supplied by the machines, there is not much that has stopped us. Having the technical support along with parts and equipment on the shelf is a definite advantage when dealing with a supplier to minimise any downtime.”