AJ Lucas Group annual report 2007-08

The Brooklyn—Lara Gas Pipeline
(left) and Queensland’s Western
Corridor Recycled Water Project
(right) are two of the major
projects Lucas Pipelines has
worked on during the year.
water to south-east Queensland, supplying power
stations, farmers, industrial and domestic users.
Water that, until now, has been a waste product.
Lucas, in alliance with Transfield Services,
GHD and Sunwater, is responsible for the design,
engineering and construction of the Eastern
Pipeline section. This comprises 110 km of
pipeline and three pumping stations connecting
to three advanced wastewater treatment plants.
Working with longtime client Sydney Water,
we solved an environmental challenge for their
Upper Blue Mountains Sewer project – and set
a world record in the process – by installing two
2,400 m sewer lines using horizontal directional
drilling. This was one of three projects we
completed as part of Sydney Water’s Priority
Sewage Program Alliance.
Lucas’ water expertise and resources continue
to expand. During the year Lucas Water acquired
the Australasian licence for the patented water
treatment systems developed by Beijing Origin
Water, the firm responsible for water recycling at
the Beijing Olympics ‘Water Cube’. These systems
range from household size self-contained units,
through to reverse osmosis plants suitable for a
wide range of treatment needs.
At the very large scale, we’ve formed the
Southern SeaWater Alliance (SSWA) with
Spanish water treatment giants, Técnicas
Reunidas and Valoriza Agua, along with
international engineering company Worley
Parsons, to submit one of the two detailed
proposals requested for the 50–100 GL/year
Southern Seawater Desalination Plant by
Western Australia’s Water Corporation. The
outcome of this tender is due mid-November.
Oil & gas
Lucas’ Pipeline division worked on two major
gas pipelines for the APA Group over the year.
The $43 million Brooklyn-Lara Pipeline
travels 58 km from the Melbourne suburb of
Brooklyn to Lara, near Geelong in Victoria. This
will supplement Victoria’s gas supply to ensure
it can cope with peak winter demand.
Apart from the pipeline itself, the project
included inlet and intermediate facilities as
well as its connection to the Lara to Iona South
West Pipeline at Lara City Gate.
Construction, which runs through a mix of
industrial, rural living and open grazing land,
was challenging with four major water, two
freeway and one railway crossing.
Lucas began work on the Bonaparte
Pipeline in March 2008. This $170 million,
300 mm steel pipeline will carry up to 40
petajoules per year of natural gas 280 km
from Eni Australia’s Blacktip gas plant near
Wadeye to join the Amadeus Basin to Darwin
gas pipeline at Ban Ban Springs station. It will
deliver gas by January 2009.
“Sustaining australia”
This statement sums up the Lucas commitment.
We continue to seek better-engineered solutions
to maximise the effectiveness and minimise the
environmental impact of infrastructure development,
as well as reducing all the risks of construction.
Construction challenges include nearimpossible
access during the wet season, so
work has to be completed during the dry season
demanding absolute precision of scheduling
and execution. The pipeline passes through
national parks and Aboriginal lands, so we’ve
worked closely with land councils and park
authorities to anticipate and avoid any risks.
The Northern Territory’s chief minister
Paul Henderson described the pipeline as “an
investment in the Territory’s future that will
secure the Northern Territory’s energy supply
needs for 25 years”.
a year of milestones 7