The Devonport Naval Base, home of the Royal New Zealand Navy, had an issue with its drydock with water leaking through a side drainage gate which had become jammed.
As the drydock is essential for maintaining naval vessels to ensure they can deploy when required, it was considered an urgent job.
The ingress from the gate to the drydock was rectangular. Not a straightforward space to seal in order for repairs to the pipe to be quickly, and safely, made. Hayden Powell from the BurrowTech team says such drainage or ingress points are usually round – a simpler task to deal with.
Working with New Zealand Diving and Salvage, who are experts in inland water systems and the marine industry throughout New Zealand and the Pacific, BurrowTech provided a solution.
A 2.2 metre sealing cushion was quickly sourced from BurrowTech’s Australian branch. Meantime, a diver was able to get to work preparing the pipe. This had to be cleaned of a barnacle build-up before work could progress.
Hayden says the benefits of the sealing cushion made it – literally – a perfect fit for the job. Not only does it seal a variety of pipe configurations, it is extremely durable and can withstand any sharp edges and tidal pressures.
The tides added an extra level of difficulty to the job. This gave the team a small window of opportunity within which to deploy and inflate the sealing cushion. Hayden said there was about an hour before the tide turned for final work to be done, and a further two hours for set up.
“Everyone was pretty happy with how it all went.”
Job done.
