Western Sydney takes to the skies!

The Challenge           

The Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport project involves construction and operation of a metro rail line, approx. 23 kilometres in length, between the T1 Western Line at St Marys in the north through to the new Western Sydney International Airport and the Aerotropolis Core in the south. 

CPB Contractors Ghella Joint Venture (CPBG) were awarded the station box and tunnel contract which included approximately 10.6 km of twin tunnels to be built by four Tunnel Boring machines (TBM’s). CPBG had seven sites across the new rail alignment to carry out and support the tunnelling operations.

With construction starting almost simultaneously across all sites, CPBG needed a partner capable of delivering water treatment to match the project’s ambitious schedule. 

Having previously delivered eight construction water treatment plants (WTP’s) for the Sydney Metro City & Southwest, Aquatic Engineering had a proven track record with challenges from tunnelling operations. 

Our Solution

The original scope had called for three different size plants across seven sites.  Working collaboratively with client, the requirements were reviewed and refined, to a single 15 L/s design. The single size plant allowed WTP’s to be installed on each site, with the availability of installing a second WTP for increased capacity at TBM sites, prior to TBM launch.

Aquatic Engineering created a bespoke WTP featuring upfront solids removal, pH correction, clarification, filtration, sludge dewatering, recycling and discharge monitoring.

Prefabrication of containerized units occurred simultaneously at two production facilities.  The single plant design allowed for efficiency gains in procurement, production and significantly reduced onsite installation times.  A total of nine plants were manufactured, eight installed and one as a spare.