3000 WORKERS HIT 3.3 MILLION MANHOURS ON SEQ GRID

July 31, 2007

The 3000-strong workforce building the three leading projects in the South East Queensland Water Grid have clocked up an impressive 3.3 million man-hours as construction forges ahead, Deputy Premier and Infrastructure Minister Anna Bligh said today.

Ms Bligh said the Queensland Water Commission’s June progress report, released today, showed the three key projects – the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project, the Southern Regional Water Pipeline and the Gold Coast Desalination Plant - were progressing on schedule.

“That progress continued through July. To the end of this month, Western Corridor has clocked up 1.5 million man hours, Southern Regional has more than 1 million man hours and the Gold Coast Desalination Plant has more than 800,000 man hours,” she said.

“When you add in the construction and technical studies under way on projects like the Cedar Grove Weir, the Northern and Eastern Pipeline Interconnectors and the proposed Traveston Crossing and Wyaralong Dams, the workforce swells to more than 3300 at 45 locations.”

Almost 92 km of pipeline has been laid across the whole water grid, about one-fifth of the total, and work at the desalination plant is now about 30% complete.

“As of last Friday, 54.9km of pipeline had been laid on the Western Corridor project.

“The Southern pipeline is also going well, with 35.5km of pipeline laid, more than a third of the total. And 1.4km of pipe has been laid on the Tugun to Worongary pipeline that connects the desalination plant to the water grid.

“The amount of pipe being laid is a credit to all staff who are working flat out to beat the drought and ensure the grid is completed on time.”

Further to this, the Brisbane Aquifer Project is progressing on target, with Sunnybank Water Treatment Plant commissioned and delivering drinking water from June 28.

Ms Bligh said that while June’s monthly report details virtually a status quo on the major projects, the forecast for the WCRWP has output down to 15ML/day in the stage that supplies purified water to the Swanbank power station.

She said that with south east Queenslanders doing so well in reducing their daily water consumption, it is obvious the recycled volumes must drop. This could be expected to fall further as the water-saving successes continue.

“However, this is short-term. What is being built is not just a response for now, but will mean a drought-proofing system that will be in place for 100 years or more,” she said.

Ms Bligh said other sources of water are being identified and announced the State Government has agreed to fund an $8 million upgrade of the South Maclean Water Treatment Plant and build an improved connection to Logan City.

“This will deliver up to 7,000,000 litres a day to Logan City by early 2008 and further reduce demand on the Wivenhoe Dam system,” she said.

Ms Bligh said the initial Systems Operating Plan for the SEQ Water Grid would be on the Queensland Water Commission’s website today.

Media contact: Deputy Premier’s Office 3224 6900.