The Company is pleased to advise that on the 18th of November two $15 million 150 t tunnel boring machines (TBMs), ‘Cora the Bora’ and ‘Nessie’, arrived on site at the 100 GL Adelaide Desalination Plant project to begin work on the 1.5 km intake and 1 km outlet tunnels.

The TBMs were named by local Hallett Cove Primary School grade 5 students Selena Spink and Ellie Jamieson, who won the “Name the Tunnel Boring Machine Competition” run by SA Water and AdelaideAqua. South Australian Minister for Water Security Karlene Maywald joined Selena, Ellie and other students from Hallet Cove Primary on site to welcome the arrival of the TBMs. “It’s exciting to be here to welcome these heavy weight tunnellers and join with some of our future water conservationists to give the bores their names” Minister Maywald said.

Minister Maywald noted the use of the TBMs significantly reduced the environmental impact of construction, “Using these two custom-built tunnel boring machines will assist to limit the disturbance of the seabed because no large above-ground pipes will be required for the intake and outfall pipelines”.

AdelaideAqua's team have been busy preparing for the arrival of the TBMs with construction of three TBM launch shafts with depths up to 60 m and diameters of up to 14 m. Nessie will be launched later this month to begin construction of the intake tunnel.

Meanwhile, the Santa Fe jack up barge has been mobilised to site from McConnell Dowell's Cape Lambert Iron Ore project to construct the sea connections and diffusers for the tunnels.

McConnell Dowell and Built Environs are also constructing an 11.5 km pipeline that will deliver desalinated water from Port Stanvac to the Happy Valley water treatment storage area.

The AdelaideAqua consortium which comprises McConnell Dowell, Abigroup and Acciona Agua is on the way to delivering desalinated water by the end of 2010 catering for approximately 50% of Adelaide and surrounds needs.