Breakfast Creek Trunk Sewer Augmentation

Automated rail infrastructure monitoring — protecting Queensland Rail assets during tunnel works for Brisbane’s critical new trunk sewer.

The Breakfast Creek Project

Urban Utilities and Fulton Hogan Utilities are collaborating on the construction of a new trunk sewer pipe that will span from Bowen Hills to Windsor. This project aims to meet the increasing needs of the expanding community, as the catchment area is projected to grow by approximately 37,000 individuals within the next three decades. With a diameter of 1.8 meters, the new sewer pipe serves a crucial purpose of efficiently transporting wastewater from numerous homes and businesses to the Luggage Point Resource Recovery Centre, where it undergoes necessary treatment processes. To achieve this goal, a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) will be utilized to tunnel through the challenging Brisbane Tuff rock, situated 14 meters beneath the ground, covering a distance of over one kilometre.

The Situation

Due to the tunnel running beneath the Queensland Rail Bowen Hills Station North rail lines, there is a potential risk to the assets and track geometry of Queensland Rail. Consequently, close monitoring becomes imperative to ensure safety and adherence to regulations. Rob Carr is responsible for delivering the project and engaged Sixense to design and implement an automated monitoring system specifically tailored to meet Queensland Rail’s track monitoring requirements.

What We’ve Delivered

Sixense has developed a Rail Infrastructure Monitoring Action Plan (RIMAP) that outlines the monitoring system designed to meet the specifications of Queensland Rail. Once the RIMAP received approval, Sixense proceeded to install a monitoring system consisting of two automated stations (Cyclops), powered by solar panels, and positioned 102 structural monitoring prisms on the sleepers of the sensitive lines adjacent to the construction works. This configuration enables real-time monitoring as the tunnel boring machine (TBM) crosses the lines. All the monitoring data captured by the instruments was consolidated into Sixense’s monitoring software, Beyond Monitoring. This software facilitates interactive views and graphs of the data, handles automated alarms, and generates comprehensive reports.