Gladstone Area Water Board (GAWB) is upgrading its water pipeline network with end-of-life flowmeter replacements at 44 sites across the Gladstone region.
A flowmeter is a device that measures the amount of water flowing through a pipe, which provides accurate collection and capture of metering data in real time to support consistent and reliable water supply to GAWB customers.
GAWB CEO Darren Barlow said the upgrades would support the continuous and accurate metering of customers’ water consumption – which is essential for ensuring secure, reliable water supply to our customers across the Gladstone region.
“We’re replacing older-model flowmeters that have reached their end-of-life with updated devices, as the older-model instruments are no longer supported by the supplier,” Mr Barlow said.
“The supplier can no longer provide spare parts for the older-style devices for our maintenance program, so they must be replaced with a maintainable alternative.
The Flowmeter Replacement project will see one quarter of 200 flowmeters located throughout the GAWB network of pipelines replaced with new ABB WaterMaster® meters.
“The new meters will support reliable operation of the water network, ensuring maintenance of the instruments can continue in the future,” Mr Barlow said.
“GAWB’s ability to maintain and repair flowmeters in a timely manner is imperative to ensure continued, accurate collection of metering data to provide a consistent and reliable service.”
Mr Barlow said the $2.7 million investment follows a pilot in 2022, which saw the replacement of 15 flowmeters in raw-water supply pipelines for 15 industrial water customers.
“The pilot helped to clarify the design and implementation requirements for this year’s round of replacement works,” he said. Installation of the remaining flowmeters will be rolled out over the coming months, with an expected completion date of December 2024.
