$190m Dam Contracts Awarded

The current Borumba Dam … the proposal is to expand this water storage by building a new dam wall downstream; if the project is approved a new upper reservoir system will also be built (Photo: Powerlink)

September 18, 2024

Almost $190 million worth of contracts have been announced for the yet-to-be approved Borumba Dam Pumped Hydro Project.

Water2Wire – a joint venture between engineering and design firms GHD, Mott MacDonald and Stantec – will be responsible for leading the engineering and design for seven dams, ie. six new dam walls which will form the upper reservoir as well as the expansion of the existing Borumba Dam (the construction of a new dam wall and spillway downstream to increase the dam’s capacity).

The engineering design of the Borumba Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES) system has been awarded to a joint venture between AFRY-Aurecon. This will focus on technical elements of the pumped hydro scheme itself, including the relationship between the turbines, cavern design, tunnel waterway and other equipment.

An almost $111 million contract has been awarded to Australian-owned engineering and construction company Decmil to design and build two temporary workers camps on previously cleared freehold land. Each camp will be able to house up to 336 workers.

“Queensland Hydro is well aware of the potential disruption a project of this scale could have on small regional communities and we are working with them to ensure we get our plans right,” Queensland Hydro CEO Kieran Cusack said.

“In developing our plans, we respect these communities and we are taking the lessons from other projects to ensure we are good neighbours. A big part of this is minimising the impact on housing and roads near where we will operate.

“We want our workforce to be safe today and every day. By housing as many workers as possible in state-of-the-art temporary worker camps on-site, we’ll be reducing the need for workers to occupy homes or other accommodation within the regions and avoid hundreds of vehicle movements each day.

“Minimising potential traffic and housing impacts is the right thing to do for the community and it is also good for our workforce.”

UPDATE: Three south-east Queensland companies have also been appointed to undertake essential surface-level geotechnical drilling for the Borumba project. GeoDrill Australia, from Chevallum; Tier 1 Drilling, from Morayfield; and SJ Drilling, from Jimboomba, were successful in their tenders to provide a combined $25 million worth of drilling. The drilling is subject to Queensland Hydro receiving necessary regulatory approvals for the works.

*** * ***

What Is Pumped Hydro?

This video, by Hydro Tasmania, is about another project but includes an explanation about how pumped hydro works in conjunction with solar and wind power: