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In the pipeline
The 192 specially developed free-sliding bearings already delivered for the Kangaroo Valley Pipeline, which supplies water to the Australian state of New South Wales, represent just the start of this multi-phase project.
The Kangaroo Valley Pipeline, located to the southwest of Sydney, was constructed in 1976 to provide water to Australia’s largest city and other parts of New South Wales. The pipeline has a diameter of 3100 mm and a length of 2.5 kilometres, and a condition assessment at the end of 2021 identified the need to replace both the main bearings and the lateral bearings that support and align the pipeline along its full length.
mageba was awarded the contract to design and manufacture the required bearings, with a design life of 50 years to match the remaining expected service life of the pipeline itself. The pipeline is supported by a set of four bearings at 21.5-metre intervals, with two main bearings supporting the pipeline’s weight and a lateral bearing at each side resisting horizontal forces. Each bearing is of the free-sliding type, facilitating sliding movements in all directions parallel to its sliding surface.
mageba is currently meeting this need by supplying “Type R” bearings – a specially developed version of the LASTO®FLONBLOCK bearing with appropriately designed anchor plates for connection to the pipeline support structures. Suitably tailored dust skirts were also supplied to protect the bearings – especially their sliding surfaces.
The 192 bearings required for the first phase of the project were fabricated in mageba’s Shanghai factory and have now been installed to support the pipeline, and our team in New South Wales is already working to ensure that the bearings needed to complete the replacement project will be ready when they are required on site.
Structure designer: Water NSW
Contractor: Diona / VSL Australia
Owner: Water NSW
