Stornoway will operate and maintain nine wastewater treatment plants for FMG at its Christmas Creek and Cloudbreak mining operations located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

FMG is the fourth largest producer of iron ore in the world and Stornoway has been working with FMG for the past three years.

Stornoway designed, built, installed and commissioned a membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment plant at the Cloudbreak mine site (which is home to more than 2000 people). We also built, installed and commissioned a membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment plant at the Christmas Creek mine site (housing around 800 people).

Grantham is being relocated to higher ground (outside of the flood zone) and will require new infrastructure for sewage, water, roads, stormwater, electricity and community facilities.

Stornoway will be helping to rebuild Grantham for the Lockyer Valley Regional Council. We’ve secured a contract to design, build, install and commission a wastewater treatment plant to service the relocated township, outputting Class A effluent.

This represents Stornoway’s 19th treatment plant in Queensland and is one of more than 35 water and wastewater treatment plants located across the country and in Malaysia.

What happened in Grantham was reflected across a wide part of Queensland as floods and cyclones (three in all) hit between December 2010 and February last year.

Around 30% of the Queensland Rail network and 9000 kilometres of state roads were damaged in the disasters. Nearly half a million people were left without power in their homes and businesses and over 410 state-owned schools were affected.

The Queensland Reconstruction Authority was established with a budget of $7billion to develop, implement and manage a state-wide plan for getting affected communities back on their feet.

The new housing estate for affected residents – Strengthening Grantham - was officially opened by the Premier, Anna Bligh, in December.

A special community event was held this month to mark the January 2011 flood and the community’s journey to rebuild as well as to remember those people who lost their lives in the event.

On the banks of the Brisbane River in Queensland, the first large-scale stormwater harvesting centre in an inner city catchment was officially launched recently by Her Majesty, the Queen during her visit to Australia.

Rain Bank is an initiative of South Bank Corporation. It’s designed to provide an alternative water source for irrigation needs in the 17-hectare Parklands Precinct. It’s the first of its kind to be retrofitted in a fully developed mixed-use catchment.

Stornoway is proud to have played a role in the centre’s development. We were commissioned to design, manufacture and install the water treatment plant and equipment.

The stormwater harvesting system will capture water from a 30-hectare catchment in West End and South Brisbane using existing stormwater drainage, treat the water and then distribute it around the Parklands. Generally, this water was unused and flowed into the Brisbane River.

The harvested stormwater undergoes extensive treatment to ensure it’s safe for use – and that’s where Stornoway comes in.

The water treatment plant will pre-treat to remove any oil and sediment then pass the water through a five-stage filtration and treatment process. This means pre-filtration, media filtration (similar to sand filtration), carbon filtration, UV disinfection and finally chemical dosing.

The recycled water will be used for a variety of things including irrigation, water features, toilet flushing and wash down.

Up to 77 megalitres (that’s 77 million litres) of water will be produced every year, meaning the precinct will be largely self-sufficient for water supply.

It’s estimated that the reuse will save the equivalent of 30 Olympic sized swimming pools of water every year! This represents around 85% of the precinct’s irrigation needs.

Rain Bank includes:

• a two megalitre underground storage tank (1.75 ML for raw water storage and 0.25 ML for treated water)
• stormwater treatment plant and plant room
• a Stormwater Harvesting Inception Pit or SHIP (where the water is redirected from the council stormwater system into the Rain Bank system)
• water distribution pipes
• public viewing deck where people can see the water treatment process as it happens; and
• an interactive, animated information display which depicts the urban stormwater story, treatment process, vital statistics and flow rates.

South Bank Corporation’s General Manager, Projects and Planning, Paul Herd, said the Rain Bank design highlighted their commitment to sustainability and water conservation.

“During the five years or so of drought between 2005 and 2010, we became acutely aware that we would need to secure an alternative water source to mains water to future-proof the Parklands from long-term drought,” said Mr Herd.

“We hope that the creation of Rain Bank will not only service the Parklands’ water needs in the long-term but also inspire others in the creation of water sensitive urban design.”

Rain Bank recently won the 2011 ‘eWater - Water Sensitive Urban Design Award’ at the Healthy Waterways Awards ceremony in Brisbane.

The project was funded with $3.3million from the Australian Government’s Water for the Future program and $4.65million from the Queensland Government, combined with South Bank Corporation’s own contribution. Brisbane City Council also assisted the project by enabling access to their stormwater system.

The Climate Change Minister, Cassy O’Conner, joined Greening Australia, the University of Tasmania’s science team and a team of forestry contractors in getting her hands dirty in the name of science.

The planting teams were hard at work at Bothwell in the State’s midlands for phase two of the Biodiverse Carbon Permanent Research sites.

The project is being proudly supported by Stornoway, which was one of the first Tasmanian companies to purchase carbon credits in 2010.

More than 120,000 gum trees will be planted across three sites to form a woodland community which can be studied to measure its ability to capture carbon as well as identify the best way to restore the Tasmanian landscape.

All plants are being recorded in a database showing GPS location and environmental information. This will provide a unique insight into how a plant community can become a way of capturing and storing carbon.

The project will provide valuable data on:
• Carbon storage above ground as well as below ground soil carbon
• The performance of trees from different seed sources
• The success of different mixes of tree and understory species
• Biodiversity improvements

To find out more about the work of Greening Australia, visit their web site.

Typically, ice treatment is reactive. During cold weather, you may have heard on the radio that a road is being ‘gritted’. After an early morning inspection of an ice-prone area, grit will be spread across the ice patches to provide greater skid resistance to vehicles.

Cars crossing the grit can help break up the ice but it’s not considered an ideal treatment as the grit can then become a hazard on the road once ice has melted.

Preventative ice treatment is widely recognised as the best approach. Stornoway introduced a chemical ice treatment – calcium chloride – to Tasmania, with it now widely used to stop ice formation. The treatment was trialed several years ago with Hobart City Council during winter.

The trial demonstrated that ice consistently didn’t form in sections treated with the calcium chloride spray and as a result, Stornoway began working with the council to maintain ice affected roads.

So how does it work?
The calcium chloride is used to prevent frost forming and water freezing on the road. It’s basically a chemical reaction that reduces the freezing point of water.

It works in much the same way as common salt but is less corrosive and also continues to melt snow at temperatures well below where salt is effective.

In fact, a report commissioned during the trial showed that the calcium chloride was 90% less corrosive than salt when mixed at 25% strength. The solution used to prevent ice formation is typically only 15% strength which means it is even less corrosive.

Studies by the University of Tasmania at the time also demonstrated that the calcium chloride didn’t have any adverse impacts on the environment, on soil or surrounding vegetation.

Stornoway also developed temperature sensitive ice signs to assist motorists in knowing when temperatures where suitable for the formation of ice on the roads. These road-side signs have flashing lights which are activated when the temperature drops below zero (and ice formation is likely) and switch off at 5 degrees when the road should be ice-free.

The warning signs have been adopted by the state government and are now present on many roads in southern Tasmania, warning motorists to take care as ice is present.

Stornoway is very proud to announce that Managing Director, Tim Gardner, was a finalist in the 2011 Tasmanian Business Leader of the Year awards.

Tim was selected with seven other local business leaders in the category of Business Owner Manager of the Year and the winners were announced on Friday July 15 at a luncheon ceremony.

The business awards are organised by the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to recognise and celebrate business leaders and managers who demonstrate excellence.

The awards look at excellence in daily business management as well as strategic planning, and cover six categories:

• Tasmanian Business Leader of the Year – Corporate
• Tasmanian Business Leader of the Year – Small to Medium Business
• Tasmanian Business Manager of the Year
• Tasmanian Business Owner Manager of the Year
• Tasmanian Public and Community Sector Manager of the Year
• Young Manager of the Year.

Tim’s father, Alan Gardner, founded Stornoway in 1976, originally to supply gravel in the Launceston area. This marked the start of a long history in road construction and maintenance across the state.

Since those early days, Stornoway has expanded its capability to become a specialist services provider with significant experience in road maintenance, asset management, quarrying and water treatment.

Tim has lead the company as Chief Executive Officer and then Managing Director since 2007 and was delighted to be announced as a finalist.

“Taking over the running of Stornoway from my father has been a challenging yet very rewarding journey and it gives me great pride to know that the company is successful and growing.

“I was delighted to be nominated as a finalist in these awards,” Tim added.

At the ceremony, the judges indicated they were impressed with all Owner Manager of the Year finalists, rating them as ‘outstanding’ and congratulated them on being able to find the right balance between formulation of strategic direction and strategy execution within their businesses.

For a road to be stable and less likely to deteriorate, a number of core levels are needed:

1) the first layer is the construction layer
2) this is followed by the supportive sub-base layer
3) the final layer is the top layer (in most cases asphalt).

So what makes a good road base?

It comes down to the quality of the rock sourced and selected and its strength as well as rigorous standards for the production process.

By starting with a high-strength rock and following strict processing standards, the final product retains almost all of that initial strength. In our case, the sub-base produced is almost back to the strength of solid rock (a minimum 98% modified compaction).

In producing base and sub-base material for use in road construction, we must meet high standards for quality and consistency in supply, including criteria set by the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources (DIER) for the maintenance of the state road network.

Supplying certified product involves a testing procedure where material samples are analysed by a test laboratory specialising in rock and concrete analysis. The laboratory tests the material against certain specifications and it’s only once this has been approved that the material is certified for sale.

The process then starts at the quarry where we:

- blast to source the material (basalt bluestone)
- do primary and secondary crushing to get the material to the specified size
- screen the material to ensure the right grade for the construction requirements
- add any other materials required to meet the specification.

For road base and sub-base, the crushed basalt bluestone has silica added to it for extra ‘settling’ characteristics (this means how it beds down and maintains its strong structure).

By sourcing quality material and ensuring strict processing standards, Stornoway can help ensure the longevity of critical road infrastructure, which is key to effective asset management for state and local government.

If you’d like to learn more about the quality of our product and what you need for your construction project, call our quarry on (03) 6391 9311.

Stornoway has been awarded a three-year multi-million dollar contract to maintain more than 1000 kilometres of roads and bridges in the north-east of Tasmania.

Managing Director, Tim Gardner, was delighted to add a second State Government contract for the north-east to Stornoway’s achievements.

Stornoway currently manages the north-west contract for the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources (DIER), with a workforce of more than 30 operating out of four depots located from Devonport to Queenstown.

“We were awarded the north-west contract in 2008 ahead of strong competition from multi-national companies and I’m proud that we have again demonstrated our expertise and capability to manage the state’s road network.

“That network represents 3650 kilometres of roads so securing the north-east contract means Stornoway is making a significant contribution to improving the safety and reliability of roads and bridges for Tasmanian road users.

“Stornoway is already delivering high standards of road maintenance for DIER in the north-west, benefiting the local residents, and we’re looking forward to delivering the same for communities in the north-east of the state.

Stornoway’s operations will cover a large area, from Launceston through to St Helens on the coast and across to Campbell Town in the midlands and up to Miena in the highlands.

“Our work is critical in keeping roads well maintained - we monitor and fix road surfaces, prepare roads for re-surfacing, fix safety fences and signs, remove trees that fall on roads and clear off ice and snow,” Tim said.

“All of our new employees will be local residents which means that we will have a great deal of expertise and experience available to ensure the road network is well maintained and safe.

“That local knowledge is invaluable, not least in the colder months when ice and snow can make roads treacherous for motorists,” Tim added.

Stornoway will start delivering the new contract on 1 July, 2011.