“As the Paluma Dam is an important source of water for the Townsville region, we’re proud to be able to add value to our community by being a part of this important project…”

 AUTHOR: Grant Evans

 TEi Services is passionate about adding value to our North Queensland community.

The team recently had an opportunity to combine that passion with a project that will help strengthen Townsville’s drinking water supply for generations to come.

Townsville City Council (TCC) engaged us to carry out a $550,000 upgrade to the Paluma Dam wall, increasing the storage capacity by around 334 megalitres.

Over the years, standards on water catchments have changed significantly. The TCC wanted to strengthen the Paluma Dam wall to meet those new standards, while also reducing the risk of water loss through overflow.  

TEi Services was engaged to fabricate and install 25 new large steel flashboards to increase the spillway height by around 150 millimetres, which has increased the Paluma Dam’s overall capacity to almost 12,000 megalitres.

With each flashboard weighing more than 350 kilograms, we had a crane on site for much of the project.

The added pressure of the water also increased the risk of the concrete wall buckling so we had to anchor it to the rock first which was a challenging job that required a tailored approach.

More than 450 bags of concrete and 300 bags of sealant were used in the process, giving the wall a new lifespan of around 50 years.

Our team really got to put their skills and unique knowledge to the test as the harsh North Queensland environment provided some interesting challenges throughout the life of the job.

As the Dam is in the middle of a national park, we were surrounded by dense rainforest. Access to the site proved tough as we had to navigate our equipment and machinery through the windy mountain range.

We had some wild weather, fallen trees and rain delays that proved challenging as the materials and machinery we were working with couldn’t get wet during installation.

As the Paluma Dam is an important source of water for the Townsville region, we’re proud to be able to add value to our community by being a part of this important project.

 [ENDS]