Woolgoola 66kV OH & UG Reconfiguration

The Woolgoolga contract was a highway upgrade for the RMS in consortium with Laing O’Rourke, who were the Principle Contractor. The works were broken into various conflicts over a section of 55km of the Pacific Highway from Woolgoolga to Ballina.

Our section was from Yamba to Broadwater and consisted of seven conflicts.

There were two sections of 66kV line that required upgrading. The first at Yamba Road required that the overhead power line be relocated to underground power supply, due to the new bridge to be built crossing the Grafton River needed to be significantly higher than the existing bridge.

Under boring was required to install an envelope pipe with trefoil cable conduits to be installed for each phase, as well as a spare for future. The other five conflicts were on the 11kV distribution feeders.

Traffic control was used on a regular basis due to the work being located on the existing Pacific Highway.

Key Challenges:

• Construction of overhead lines
• Construction of underground power
• Traffic control
• Landholder and community liaison