WAIMEA COMMUNITY DAM

Rock Control have been engaged to provide specialist anchoring, slope stabilisation, shotcrete, and curtain grouting services at the Waimea Community Dam project in Nelson. Since starting on site in 2019 our crews have installed upwards of 2,000 rock bolt anchors, sprayed upwards of 4,000m2 of shotcrete and completed more than 8,000m of curtain grouting.

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Two crews have been working simultaneously on site, one completing a mixture of permanent and temporary works comprising of installing rockbolts, mesh and shotcrete. The second crew are completing the curtain grouting operations, where they are drilling regularly spaced holes under the future dam structure. Grout is then pumped under pressure to close any defects in the rock, ultimately to prevent any water flow.

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The drilling operations have been undertaken utilising excavator mounted drill masts and specialist tracked drill rigs (Rock Control’s Hutte 502 and Marini MRC-20), because the cuts have been up to 6m at a time, rope access techniques have also been used to gain access.

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Hand spraying shotcrete operations have been completed either from the ground, an excavator mounted man cage, or tracked EWP. Rock Control also have an excavator mounted shotcrete robot which is utilised in places with limited access, it eliminates manual handling hazards, reduces fatigue of the nozzleman, and can cover large areas in a short space of time using larger concrete hoses.

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Rock Control are using a Jean Lutz specialist computer controlled grouting system, and are completing hole surveying and permeability testing.