South East pipeline project rolls into more milestones

SA Water’s upgrade of its Tailem Bend to Keith Pipeline has ticked off another milestone, with the utility recently installing new isolation valves along a section of the pipeline at Culburra.

The $5.8 million project involves replacing four of the pipeline’s original 3.5-tonne valves, as well as installing a further three new valves and bypass pipework in Coonalpyn, Culburra and Tintinara to improve water supply management to the towns.

SA Water’s Senior Manager of Capital Delivery Peter Seltsikas said crews needed to temporarily turn the water supply off to nine properties in Culburra, and surrounding areas, to safely enable the new valves to be installed.

“This is necessary to drain the pipeline to create a safe working environment for our crews as they installed the new isolation valves where our bypass pipework will eventually join back to the pipeline,” Peter said.

“Importantly, we provided advance notice to all of our impacted customers prior to this work commencing, to ensure they had ample opportunity to prepare.

“Given the pipeline’s size, around 12 hours of the interruption is dedicated to carefully draining and recharging this section, so our local depot team also set up a temporary water tanker nearby to help refill the network.

At 51 years of age, the Tailem Bend to Keith Pipeline is 138 kilometres long and transfers large volumes of safe, clean drinking water – produced at the Tailem Bend Water Treatment Plant located on the banks of the River Murray – to supply around 3,000 homes and businesses.

Mr Seltsikas said once an additional new valve is installed at Culburra next year, the bypass system will enable an uninterrupted supply of water during future maintenance on the pipeline.

“We’re also installing these valves in Coonalpyn and Tintinara, which will enable us to divert water away from a section of the pipe using backflows from a water storage tank in Sugar Loaf Hill, helping keep the water flowing to the towns,” Peter said.

“To prepare for this work, our crews are finalising construction of the last of three large concrete chambers that will eventually house these new valves.

“The chambers have been built around the existing pipeline, and once they’re ready, the new valves and their pipework assembly will be lifted into place and welded between two sections of the pipeline.

“Pleasingly, we’ve now also finished replacing three of the pipeline’s original steel gate valves with refurbished valves that were meticulously fabricated by our predecessors from the Engineering & Water Supply Department.”

As a result of manufacturer delays – with each valve requiring more than 44 weeks to be made – the project is now expected to be completed by mid-2025.

The remaining valves will instead be installed during the cooler months next year when water demand is lower, to minimise the impact of any supply interruptions.

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