This week, RPC Pipe System’s national sales and marketing distributor in Australia, Iplex Pipelines Pty Ltd, who has been awarded the contract for the supply of Flowtite® GRP pipe to Stage 1 of the Townsville City Council Haughton Pipeline Duplication Project (HPDP), officially kicked off the execution of this major civil project.

The Haughton Pipeline Duplication Project is being built to guarantee the future water security for the community of Townsville and following a rigorous process, Flowtite® GRP pipe was selected by the Townsville City Council offering the benefits of superior pipeline technology and long asset life.

Tony Caristo, Managing Director of RPC Technologies said, “RPC Pipe Systems has successfully manufactured more than 1,000km of piping for major projects throughout Australia and New Zealand since 2007. GRP pipe is lightweight, has superior corrosion resistance, durability, and hydraulic flow characteristics relative to conventional piping materials. We will be manufacturing the pipe in our Lonsdale, Adelaide factory, and the fittings in Townsville which will create up to 15-20 local jobs.”

The new pipeline takes water from the Burdekin Irrigation Channel and transports the water some 36.5km through a 1.8m diameter Flowtite® GRP pipe, where it is delivered just upstream of the Ross River Dam. Construction is due to be completed by the end of 2019.

The purpose of stage 1 of the HPDP will be to provide an additional 234 megalitres per day of water into Townsville’s water catchment. An existing 900mm pipeline already delivers 130 megalitres of water per day into the Ross River dam during the dry months of the year, however demand has now out stripped the capacity of this existing infrastructure giving rise to need for the Council to approve construction of the new 1.8m diameter pipeline.

“High performance composite solutions are the fabric of the future for infrastructure providers, industry and the communities they serve. RPC has a proud 40-year history of delivering innovative engineered composite solutions, manufactured locally, and we are absolutely thrilled that Townville City Council selected GRP, and local engineering and manufacturing capability for this vital infrastructure project.”