HO R IZ ONTAL D IREC TIONA L D RIL L IN G | Sponsored editorial
HOW HDD SUPPORTS
INFRASTRUCTURE ASSET RESILIENCE The Australian infrastructure sector faces many challenges, including aging assets, digitalisation, and the increasingly intense effects of climate change. Individually they are difficult to manage, but together they present both a perfect storm and an opportunity for innovation. Here, Maxibor explores how Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) can provide innovative solutions to facilitate infrastructure resilience in these challenging times.
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axibor is an independent, Australian-owned HDD design and construct company with operational bases in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Maxibor provides HDD services across the water and sewer, rail, power, gas, telecommunications, mining, defence, fuel, sea cable, data centre and renewables sectors. It has one of the largest HDD fleets in Australia including maxi-rigs, midi-rigs, rock-rigs and smaller rigs, with capacity to complete pipeline bores from 20m to 3km in length, with diameters from 63mm to 1.6m in diameter.
MEETING ENVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS The accelerating impact of age is besetting Australia’s key infrastructure assets across the water and sewer, power and telecommunications sectors. Their current condition makes them all much more susceptible to the impacts of severe climate events in the form of wind, fire, flood, erosion, drought and inundation. Even road and rail assets are becoming exposed. The digitalisation of critical infrastructure asset management, and the almost total functional dependency of the broader community on technology, makes the security of services and the resilience of assets a priority for all Australians. Parallel to this is the growing need for government and private sector infrastructure investments to meet Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) requirements. Both ESG and climate are at the top of funders’ risks and they want to be able to demonstrate that they are investing in a way that optimises outcomes for all stakeholders.
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UTILITY • NOVEMBER 2021
In this context, trenchless technology, particularly HDD, can provide solutions which are compatible with the critical needs of funders, asset owners and the broader community.
COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR AND HDD INDUSTRY Installing infrastructure ‘down under’ is an apt solution for Australia. Having telecommunications and electricity assets underground provides many obvious safety and environmental benefits. You just need to look at the ravages of the more extreme weather events like the 2019-20 bushfires to see that having infrastructure securely installed at depth provides for a safer community during these events. It also facilitates the recovery process, as services can be restored faster, meaning business and life can get back to normal within a shorter period. But how can the infrastructure sector work with the HDD industry to achieve greater infrastructure asset resilience? Early involvement in projects is where most value can be added. Whether it be concept development or early design, early-stage involvement of HDD design and delivery expertise can bring innovative ideas and ultimately better solutions to challenging infrastructure projects. HDD Engineering’s Stephen Loneragan – one of Australia’s leading and original HDD design engineers with experience in complex multidisciplinary global projects – said application of early HDD design and delivery expertise to projects is particularly important in the face of new challenges presented by climate change. “Having the combined HDD engineering design and contractor delivery experience at the project table will enable more informed decisions to be made and outcomes optimised,” Mr Loneragan said. WWW.UTILITYMAGAZINE.COM.AU
