Delivering piping great pipelines

Iron Bridge Magnetite Project is our biggest construction project to date in 2023, within the project we have various scopes including work on the 135 kilometre pipeline that pumps concentrated product from Iron Bridge to Port Hedland. Once at the port, the product is dried and stockpiled for shipment, as water returns to the process plant through the Return Water pipeline. 

We caught up with Superintendent, Mark Weldon to provide an overview of the scope and the team’s efforts.  

Tell us a bit about the project?

The scope of work started as providing welding, flange management and quality assurance support for the concentrate and return pipeline between Port Hedland and the Iron Bridge wet plant. Off the back of the team’s good work, the scope expanded to providing commissioning and mechanical support.  

During peak labour we had about 35 personnel working on the scope, remaining on the project is a team of just over 20 people working on commissioning and scaffolding.  

We completed a number of tasks including 89 flange connections on the concentrate pipeline and 93 flange connections on the return water pipeline, both including test headers, whilst remaining injury free. 

How did the team perform?  

It was great to see how well everyone integrated into a project that was already underway and required cooperation with multiple contractor groups. It was great to see that throughout the project the team were able to work well together, all while upholding our values, HSE, quality standards, and achieving our targets.  

What was the highlight?  

The team’s ability to deliver quality work and maintain a strong safety performance.  

As of mid-April, we have had around 154 days since the project began with zero injuries, which is a true testament to the team.