Delivering high quality water

Burdekin Shire Mayor Bill Lowis inspects the pit left by Bothar Boring and Tunnelling when they underbored the Bruce Highway and Queensland Rail main line near Ayr.

The Burdekin Shire Council has delivered higher quality water to residents living in Ayr and Brandon following the construction of a new pipeline and bore field.

The project was a first for the Burdekin Shire Council as part of the pipeline had to be constructed under the Bruce Highway and Queensland Rail main line.
This lessened the impact of the works on highway and rail traffic.

Bothar Boring and Tunnelling was awarded the contract to complete this part of the $2.225 million project.

Bothar used micro-tunnelling technology to underbore the road and rail for a distance of 146m from Rossiter’s Hill towards Mirrigan Road.

They then installed a 450mm diameter water main, enveloped in 675mm concrete pipe in this section of the new pipeline.

Council had two teams working from opposite ends to connect the new 3km water pipeline from the South Ayr Water Reservoir to the new bores at Rossiter’s Hill.

The project was implemented to combat problems caused by high levels of iron and manganese at the current bore field.