Skilled Pirie and Brook teams keep town in water

The tight teamwork and expert trades of SA Water crews in Port Pirie and Crystal Brook have been credited with quickly restoring full water supply to Crystal Brook last weekend, following a water main break that required complex repairs.

On Friday afternoon, SA Water crews from the two towns' depots were alerted to a break on a cast-iron trunk main near the Princes Highway, which supplies the township and surrounding areas.

SA Water’s Senior Manager of Customer Field Services Colin Bell said crews took immediate action to prevent prolonged impact to the community’s drinking water supply, by quickly mobilising to site and at the workshop.

“We realised fairly early into the incident that repairs wouldn’t be straightforward, as the break had damaged a four-metre-section of water main that required a specially-designed replacement pipe,” Colin said.

“The old section – weighing around 8.5 tonne – was replaced by a custom 400 millimetre pipe our  highly-skilled welders fabricated within a few hours at our Crystal Brook Workshop.

“Credit goes to our regional team for their outstanding efforts, including how they helped each other out and worked around the clock until their local community’s supply was returned to normal.”

In addition to what was happening at the break site, work was also going on behind the scenes to make sure customers were supported until repairs could be completed.

“Water tankers were organised for a feedlot near Crystal Brook as well as the local hospital, and our crews liaised with other key community hubs and businesses to ensure they were kept updated and could, for the most part, continue to operate as normal with reduced water pressure,” Colin said.

“Our Adelaide-based Community Support team also embarked on a 400-kilometre roundtrip to set up a collection point for an interim supply of drinking water, available for pick up on Friday evening.

“All in all, it was a humbling display of teamwork and to achieve what our people did in an urgent timeframe was incredible.

“The new section of pipe was in the ground by Saturday afternoon, and full pressure mains–supplied water was restored to all local customers in time for dinner.”

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