Project Scope
In January 2020, HEH Civil, in partnership with Sunwater Limited began work on the Sunwater Channel Upgrade in the Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland. The project required the installation and commissioning of pressurised pipelines which would allow a more efficient water delivery system and increase pressures at all pipeline offtake locations and reduce water loss.

Challenges
Challenges with the Sunwater Channel Upgrade presented in a couple of ways including:

• Covid-19 outbreak which made obtaining components and managing staff levels difficult
• Large diameter (up to 1200mm) specifications coupled with low pressure (PN4) wall thicknesses created ovality issues under self-weight. This meant considerable care and attention was required to ensure quality butt-welds and installation without damage.

Achievements
The Sunwater Channel Upgrade challenged the HEH Civil team but by embracing those challenges we were able to achieve fantastic results for the client.
Water supply was sustained for all end users throughout the project.
Strategic planning meant that we were able to utilise a concurrent Sunwater programmed shutdown for customer cutovers. This created very minimal disruption to end users’ water supply and was well received by all parties.
Considerable water loss savings were generated.

Conclusion
The Sunwater Channel Upgrade was completed in January 2021. Considering this all took place during Covid-19, we are especially proud of our completion of this project.