Hyden Wastewater Treatment Plant- Miracell®

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The Hyden Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) provides the town of Hyden and surrounding agricultural areas additional capacity to cater for current and future wastewater volumes.

Benang Energy has committed to delivering construction solutions for this project, supporting Water Corporation in providing an efficient and safe wastewater facility for all residential and commercial infrastructure. This infrastructure in turn supports economic and regional developments for the Western Australian community.

The project works included all investigation, design validation and earthworks required to re-construct two additional dams, increasing the overall capacity of the plant by 900,000 litres of effluent storage. Construction activities included reshaping the 1:3m embankment, compaction, and installation of 10,000m² Miracell® Cellular Confinement System (CCS).

PROBLEM

The external and internal slopes of the pond embankments at Hyden WWTP were originally constructed using in-situ material with limited erosion protection. Over time, due to storm events and high winds in the area, scouring has occurred. Water Corporation looked into various options for this remediation project, ultimately deciding that Global Synthetics Miracell® (CCS) placed on a separation geotextile would be the most suitable, long-term, cost-effective solution.

SOLUTION

Global Synthetics were able to assist by supplying Miracell® (CCS) with a larger cell aperture and expanded panel size than specified, in order to suit the geometry of the embankment formation.

Water Corporation approved the use of Miracell®100mm deep (CCS) including anchor heads, connection keys and structural Nylon tendons. Given that a coarse granular infill material was selected, Global Synthetics also supplied Geofirma® AS200B nonwoven geotextile as per the specification. This geotextile provided separation between the fill material and the subgrade.

Once back filled with aggregate, the Miracell® system exhibits enhanced mechanical and geotechnical properties which provides scour protection to the natural surface below.

RESULTS

Water Corporation’s WWTP expansion at Hyden will now benefit from smart engineering using a system that provides long-term secure containment, combined with performance that will last for decades. Water Corporation’s appointed design engineer expressed esteem for the product supplied by Global Synthetics and the installation performed by the team at Benang Energy.