Adelaide's living beaches - sand transfer infrastructure project

The Adelaide's Living Beaches - Sand Transfer Infrastructure project is a slurry pumping system that replaces trucked sand carting over two sections of Adelaide's coast. The sand pumping, over 9km, continues Adelaide's forty year beach replenishment program on the 28km coast. The infrastructure delivers beach replenishment in two sand management cells using two fixed seawater intakes, two fixed main slurry pump stations and three slurry booster stations. Sand is collected by mobile conventional beach plant, screened and slurried by a custom built relocatable sand collection unit. Slurry is discharged to the beach via one of 16 discharge points. The project is part of the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources's 2005 Adelaide's Living Beaches Strategy. Project concept design was undertaken in 2009, Design and Construct, and Operate and Maintain contracts let in August 2011, construction from 26 March 2012 and full commissioning completed by May 2013. The paper outlines the design requirements and the solution identified to deliver the project, with a brief discussion of the rationale for selection or design of key elements of the project, such as shore based water intake stations, underground pump station chambers, and manual methods for alteration of discharge point selection. Constraints around the construction are discussed, including pipeline route selection. Relevant aspects of policy, planning, contract procurement and project management are noted. The influences of client considerations, local site conditions, negotiated aesthetic outcomes and measures to overcome latent conditions in both the design and delivery of the project are discussed.