Amex Sanivar
- Sep 24, 2020
- 2 min read

Amex© Seals rehabilitate remote irrigation pipe in Australia

Murrumbidgee is one of the largest private irrigation companies in Australia serving over 3,260 landholdings that are owned by over 2,300 shareholder customers within an area of 378,911 hectares. The irrigation water and drainage services provided have helped create a diverse and highly productive agricultural region known as the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA).

In 2020 a series of four RCP large irrigation pipelines faced joint and spot damage, causing immense leakage and water loss. The local irrigation renewal alliance realized the need to repair the pipelines to conserve water and began looking for a solution.

Challenges

The four pipelines on Gum Creek Rd Griffith presented a number of challenges. First, the pipelines are extremely large, measuring at just over 2 meters in diameter. This severely limited the different types of rehabilitation methods that could be considered. In addition to this, the pipelines were located in a regional part of NSW, resulting in the need for a product that needed no maintenance with a long design life.

Finally, due to the upstream gates not sealing and bringing continual steady water flow into the pipes, the team used pumping equipment to drain the water to a manageable level each morning. This is one of the key advantages of installing the Amex Mono© Seal – it can be installed whilst some minor water flow is present.

Outcomes

It was determined that the Amex© Seal system would be the best solution for rehabilitating these pipelines. The Amex Mono© 180mm width seal was chosen because it can be installed despite continual water flow, the flexibility of the EPDM rubber and design life. Working with its partner in Australia, Drainco, the installation of 80 Amex Mono© seals took place over the course of several days. Since then, exfiltration has ceased and the pipes are running at full capacity.