Shallow services locating for Great North Road project

Durkin and their client for the Great North Road project have had a very close professional relationship over the last couple of decades, and we’ve partnered on a number of significant projects throughout Sydney and delivered great results. 

The collaboration that started almost 20 years ago with asphalt and stabilisation projects was nurtured with service excellence and a shared commitment to delivering exceptional results. 

In the years since then, the relationship has evolved in every possible way and we’ve developed unwavering trust, making Durkin the preferred provider for this client’s engineering and service locating needs across a range of projects. Besides new projects, Durkin also has some ongoing maintenance contracts with the client. 

On this recent project in the Great North Road area, shallow services locating was required to carry out the project without causing any damage to water and gas supply lines, and any other services for that matter. 

Recognising the importance of mitigating the risk of service strikes, the client turned to their trusted partner of 20 years, Durkin. With their expertise in potholing and service-lowering, Durkin was the ideal choice to minimise the potential impact on essential services during the project.

The Problem That Needed To Be Solved

Shallow services are always a matter of concern when carrying out infrastructure development or maintenance projects in Sydney, and this worksite at the Great North Road was no different. 

The goal was to avoid the risk of hitting shallow utilities while carrying out various construction works, as it would not only disrupt the supply of basic necessities like water and gas but might also lead to water damage to the work site, further delaying the work progress. 

Durkin’s Senior Works Coordinator, Kate Durkin, was of the view that their client was well aware of the risks and wanted Durkin to mitigate and locate any shallow services around the worksite. This would ensure seamless and risk-free completion of the job they had at hand. 

“There’s always a risk of hitting shallow services when you’re doing the construction works across Sydney, let alone the Great North Road. Our client was well aware of the risks and Durkin’s capabilities to provide a way out,” Kate said. 

“Durkin has the equipment and expertise to offer a premium locating service for any at-risk shallow services around the worksite”. 

“In fact, more recently, we’ve also started offering the lowering of these services as needed to ensure uninterrupted completion of construction and maintenance projects where shallow services pose a risk. 

“As we have ongoing maintenance contracts with this client, they knew very well what we’re capable of and trusted us with the accurate location of shallow services for this project,” Kate asserted. 

The Scope of The Project

This was not the first time that Durkin has been asked to locate shallow services around the Great North Road area, so we knew what would be required to deliver accurate results to satisfy the client. 

The scope of the project included:

• EM and GPR Scans to locate potential underground services at the worksite

• Potholing unknown or shallow services, confirming their accurate depth and alignment

• Locate all underground services before the milling starts

Durkin crews are pretty much familiar with the locale and had rendered location services in the area before as well. So, we stipulated a perfect plan for service location, identifying potential clashes with existing utilities. 

“The area has all sorts of underground services, from gas and water to electric and fiber optics, and we had a fair bit of idea what we were dealing with,” Kate said. 

“The reason why we managed to plan the project to perfection was, one, our crews had worked in the area before, and second, they are well-versed with shallow service locations and have a close understanding of the process,” she explained. 

“We have the expertise and equipment to conduct thorough surveys, analyse the data obtained, and make accurate assessments to map out the underground services. Probably, that’s the reason why our client for this project has trusted us for two long decades,” she added. 

Challenges That Could Hinder The Progress Of This Project

There were no major challenges in this project and the only thing Durkin had to manage was working hours and the fact that the project had to follow a strict timeline. As it was more of a routine thing for Durkin, there were no hiccups and everything went pretty smoothly. 

The Works Coordinator worked with the team to decide the optimal work hours, and Durkin managed to deliver the desired results within the given timeframe. 

“Honestly, we never thought there was any challenge in this job. We were confident right from the beginning and carried out the job as planned,” Kate explained. 

“The only challenge, if I have to mention something at all, was to manage the traffic in the daytime, as it’s a pretty busy area. 

“So, we discussed it with the team and decided to do the trench work at night to reduce the flow of traffic passing through the work site. It helped us a lot to execute the surveys and gather accurate information about the shallow services we located in the area. 

“Other than that, everything was pretty routine, and nothing really hindered the progress of the project. We managed to finish the job within a couple of days and met the project deadline,” Kate affirmed. 

Durkin Executing The Plans And Delivering Satisfaction

After receiving the scope of works from the client, the Works Coordinator at Durkin discussed it with the team and worked out a plan to manage the challenges, while ensuring thorough scans are completed at the worksite to explore all the underground services and that accurate information is obtained about shallow services. 

While doing the investigations, Durkin also wanted to make sure the job is done in line with any state and government laws that may apply. So, they got all the approvals necessary from the authorities and got to work. 

“When we were approached with the scope of this new project, we saw it as routine work and put together a plan for managing the simple challenges we were faced with,” Kate explained.

“After getting necessary approvals from the authorities and informing everyone concerned about our plans to do the trench work at night, we deployed our crews and they started exploring any shallow services in the area. 

Durkin teams did the EM and GPR scans around the worksite and revealed multiple very shallow services. The job was to measure the depth and alignment of these shallow services accurately, and therefore, a potholing plan was proposed based on the information acquired in the scans. 

“Our teams carried out the EM and GPR scans and the data from the scans was organised and reviewed from the engineering viewpoint. After thorough study and analysis of the data, we proposed a workable potholing plan to determine the accurate depth and alignment of the shallow services,” Kate elaborated. 

“After getting the approval from the client, we executed the plan and learned accurate information that was required as part of the project deliverables. The information learned was organised and shared with the client who were very happy with the outcomes as we managed to detect very shallow services in the area,” Kate concluded. 

Even though Durkin saw it as a pretty simple and routine job right from the very beginning, they made sure the project was properly planned and executed. Our thorough approach helped achieve the desired results and they delivered to the client’s expectations.