Goulburn-Murray Water has enjoyed a highly productive Winter Works program so far, with plenty more planned before the 2024-25 irrigation season starts on August 15.
The water corporation has a brief, three-month window between irrigation seasons when it can move water around to complete various maintenance activities such as weeding, desilting, and channel repairs.
G-MW infrastructure delivery services general manager Warren Jose said a mountain of work had already been completed during the 2024 program.
“We plan extensively for our Winter Works program, as it is a great opportunity for us to complete projects that would impact irrigators if they were undertaken during the irrigation season,” he said.
“We always have a long list of projects we want to get through during the winter, and we are pleased to have already been able to complete a high amount of them.”
More than 20km of channel has been desilted, and more than 260km of channel has been treated for aquatic weeds in the first two months of the program.
Also, 10 pipelines have been repaired, hundreds of kilometres of channel access tracks have been treated, numerous road culverts have been repaired and replaced, and several kilometres of channels have been remodelled and had their banks strengthened with rock armouring.
Several major projects have already been completed, including:
Warrigal Creek Regulator repairs: The regulator regulates drainage outfalls from the Goulburn River and prevents water flowing back into the river during flood. A large part of the works involved relining the interior of the regulator pipes to prevent leaking.
To do this, G-MW created a coffer dam and used a Rotaloc Liner. A Rotaloc Liner is a winding machine that feeds a single strip of plastic through a pipe. The plastic lining uses a helix configuration that enables it to lock together at the edges.
Numurkah-Cobram railway line culvert replacement: The previous culvert was constructed in 1944 and was beginning to exhibit minor cracking. The works required traffic conditions to be changed, including the temporary closure of Hooper Rd. Traffic conditions have now returned to normal.
Toolamba-Echuca railway line culvert replacement: The previous culvert was constructed in 1910 and had also begun to exhibit cracking. Traffic conditions were temporarily changed during the works but have now returned to normal.
“There is still plenty more we want to get done before the start of the irrigation season,” Mr Jose said.
“In some places, there will still be changed traffic conditions and an increase in heavy vehicles on the road. We ask everyone to exercise extra care in these areas.”
For more information about Winter Works, including an interactive map of where works are happening, visit: https://www.g-mwater.com.au/ winter-works