The British-Australian mining group Rio Tinto was founded in 1873. Today, it is one of the three largest mining companies in the world and also the world’s leading manufacturer of aluminium.
Rio Tinto operates a seaport facility at Cape Lambert located in the Pilbara region in Western Australia. About 1,600 km north of Perth, this port is used for exporting iron ore. The annual capacity amounts to 80 million tons. Under and along a principal road into the port, an existing drinking water pipeline DN 200 made of HDPE needed rehabilitation.
Quite a challenge: Since the port is operated 24 hours a day and seven days a week, a classical rehabilitation with excavations was not feasible because operation could not be interrupted. Another reason why the operator took the decision to renovate the pipeline with trenchless technology is that the pipeline partially passes through areas of cultural heritage sensitivity. In these vulnerable territories, dig-and-replace is not allowed.
So in the end, Primus Line® installation partner Interflow completed the installation of 1,550 m of Primus Line® DN 150 PN 25 in three sections and only four working days – a restrained time frame, respecting and protecting the special location.
