Tasmania is home to some of the most pristine and valuable natural environments in the world, and TasWater’s Sensitive Waterways Program has made a direct contribution to the protection and restoration of the state’s coastal and estuarine waterways. By reducing the frequency and severity of untreated sewage spills into our waterways, the program plays a critical role in delivering on TasWater’s corporate commitment to a healthier environment, one of the organisation’s four strategic focus areas.

The Sensitive Waterways Project represents a major civil construction achievement by TasWater and its delivery partners, with projects being completed across 33 different sites within nine key coastal catchments around Tasmania. The project was initiated to mitigate a significant environmental and economic risk to Tasmania’s waterways by reducing the frequency and severity of untreated sewage spills during storm and infrastructure failure events.

Initially scoped to deliver just electrical and SCADA upgrades at 84 Sewage Pump Stations (SPSs), the program evolved through a comprehensive gap analysis into a multi-faceted civil construction initiative. The revised scope introduced emergency storage tanks and structural upgrades to address key environmental vulnerabilities, reduce spill risks, and improve operational response windows. These upgrades were delivered under compressed timeframes, in geographically dispersed, and environmentally sensitive coastal and community locations.

The project included:

• Installation of emergency storage tanks
• Gravity mains and pipeline works
• New and upgraded switchboards and pumps
• Extensive excavation and structural works
• Heritage-sensitive construction management
• Complex stakeholder engagement in high-use public areas

Construction was undertaken using a collaborative delivery model with internal and external partners, ensuring compliance with environmental, health and safety, and cultural heritage regulations.