Major Water Grid Project Takes Shape in the Middle of Brisbane

Deputy Premier Paul Lucas today inspected a key element of the State Government’s $9 billion South East Queensland water grid taking shape almost unnoticed by hundreds of thousands of travellers.

Mr Lucas today visited the Luggage Point Advanced Water Treatment Plant, which is under construction and will form part of the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project.

“The State Government is serious about delivering water security for South East Queensland,” Mr Lucas said.

“The Luggage Point Advanced Water Treatment Plant will play a major part in diversifying the region’s water supply and delivering purified recycled water to the region’s taps.

“The thousands of people flying in and out of Brisbane Airport every day probably don’t notice it but a vital component of the water grid is taking shape below them.

“The work at Luggage Point is a major component of the State Government’s Western Corridor Recycled Water Project, which has capacity to provide up to 232 ML/day of water to the region.

“The Luggage Point plant will supply up to 66ML of that 232ML/day – that’s enough water for more than 460,000 people.

“The sixteen large reverse osmosis (or RO) skids that will house key filtration equipment are now in place on site, with work starting this week on the frame of the treatment plant itself.

“Each RO skid is 2.5m wide, 6m long and 4m high - they're an impressive sight. And by this time next year, they’ll be doing the heavy lifting needed to purify the recycled water that will be pumped into Wivenhoe Dam.”

Mr Lucas said construction work on the project was equally impressive.

“Work began on the Luggage Point plant in January, and has involved about 220 workers.

“In that time, they have already placed 60,000 cubic metres of fill and driven 44,000 metres of concrete piles to prepare the site foundation.

“More than 7,500 cubic metres of concrete has been poured for the major water holding tanks and building structures, which equates to more than 60 per cent of the total concrete required for the site.”

Mr Lucas said the Luggage Point Alliance had also designed and constructed a small pilot plant which simulates the design, operation and water quality of the full-scale plant.

Mr Lucas said the plant was already producing preliminary recycled water for monitoring and testing, with results being fed back into the design of the larger plant.

“The pilot plant means we can do the testing and design changes on a smaller scale – saving time and money when it comes to delivering the entire plant.”

"Work is on track to have the project finished and water flowing by October next year – two months ahead of the original schedule. The construction timeframe is a huge challenge but the Luggage Point team recognises the importance of the project and the need to produce purified recycled water for the South East Queensland region during the worst drought on record," he said.

Mr Lucas also confirmed that work on the rest of the water grid is on track to meet various deadlines between October 2008 and December 2008.

More than 40 per cent of the 450km South East Queensland Water Grid is now in the ground, with two-thirds of the required pipe now delivered.

“Each of the major projects, the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project, the Southern Regional Water Project, the Gold Coast Desalination Plant and Stage 1 of the Northern Pipeline Inter-connector are marching to completion,” Mr Lucas said.

“Luggage Point Advanced Water Treatment Plant is part of Stage 2 of the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project, which overall has 54 per cent of its pipe in the ground. And the Southern Regional Pipeline project has laid more than 62 km of pipe and the Gold Coast Desalination Plant is approaching the halfway mark.

“Our pipe procurement team has recently confirmed some 300km of pipe or 67 per cent of the grid's pipe needs has been delivered.

“Collectively some 3500 workers on the water grid projects are working in more than 45 different locations and have clocked up more than five million hours of work.”

Media inquiries: Robert Hoge 0419 757 868