LinkWater, a new water infrastructure company formed by the Queensland Government in 2006 to manage the existing and long term potable water requirements of South East Queensland, awarded McConnnell Dowell, in joint venture, the Southern Regional Water Pipeline Project (SRWP).

One of LinkWater’s most important tasks was to oversee the construction of a new water grid with the flexibility and capacity to move large volumes of water throughout the growing region.

This new infrastructure includes the Southern Regional Water Pipeline (SRWP), The Western Corridor Recycled Water Project (WCRWP) and the Northern Interconnector Pipeline (NPI). All three projects were delivered by alliance teams of which McConnell Dowell was a key member.

The SRWP project included the EPC delivery of a reverse flow 1,086 mm diameter MSCL and 1,290 mm diameter MSEL pipeline and associated infrastructure along a 100 km route from Cameron’s Hill, west of Brisbane, to Molendinar on the Gold Coast. The reverse flow capability means the water for the pipeline can come from a variety of sources including Wivenhoe Dam, Hinze Dam and the Tugun desalination plant. Looking to the future, the pipeline has been designed with the capacity to take additional water from any new sources.

This project has been a benchmark for MacDow, refining our capability in inner-urban linear construction, community consultation and approvals management.

To win it we partnered with the designer with the most in-depth knowledge of the project issues and a likeminded contractor with complimentary resources.

The alliance team were responsible for the full range of services including land acquisition, design, approvals, procurement, construction and commissioning. Because of the fast tracked nature of the project, land access, design, approvals, procurement all progressed simultaneously to ensure construction was kept to program. 
During the development phase the Alliance team implemented a structured innovations approach and register which resulted in 300 innovations and over $50m in savings.

In order to maintain the necessary hydraulic grade, the works also included 10 microtunnels, four of which are river crossings and four through hilly terrain. In addition, there were approximately 12 elevated crossings and numerous auger bores for road and other crossings.

The project has been recognised by industry for excellence in a number of areas.
In October 2008 the project team were awarded runner-up status in the 2007 Chevron Health and Safety awards. The awards acknowledge companies who proactively prevent accidents and injuries on their projects and demonstrate outstanding safety results. The selection criteria included demonstration of proactive programmes and/or processes, unique innovations or initiatives to avoid accidents and well-defined systems, procedures or practices which enhance safety. In 2007 the project won the Queensland Major Contractor's Association Project Safety Excellence Award.

These safety awards recognise McConnell Dowell’s behavioural and systems based safety program, which was adopted by the alliance team, as world-leading.
In March 2008, the project also received the Contractor Excellence Award at the Australian National Infrastructure Awards.