EnergyAustralia CBD and Inner Suburbs Power Upgrade
GARDE Pty Ltd was contracted to install15 kilometres of high voltage cable deep beneath the city of Sydney as part of EnergyAustralia’s major upgrade of the electricity network to the central business district and surrounding suburbs.

A new zone substation has been built in Campbell Street, Surry Hills plus a tunnel linking the new substation with others in Ann Street, Surry Hills and Campbell Street (Roden Cutler House — near George Street) in Sydney’s CBD and a new substation constructed by TransGrid in Ultimo Road, Haymarket.

GARDE Pty Ltd was contracted to install the electricity cables to run through the tunnel and into the four substations. It was one of the most complex cable laying tasks ever undertaken in Australia and required detailed planning, design and construction of specialised equipment.

A number of factors contribute to the complexity of this installation project. The cable, purpose designed and built in Australia by Olex Cables in Melbourne, weighs over 23 kg per metre with a diameter of approximately 117mm. Each length of cable had to be installed continuously with no joins allowed. The cable required delicate handling as it was carefully installed in a snaking pattern onto brackets along the tunnel wall.
The cable had also to be pulled up vertical shafts and into different levels of the substation building.

GARDE commissioned a purpose built cable laying machine designed and built by Tescorp Pty Ltd in Cairns, Queensland with design input from Garde. The Tunnel Cable Installation System resembles a small train which can pull more than a kilometre of cable into place at a time on hundreds of small trolleys. Teamwork by specialist operators using sophisticated radio communications was required to coordinate this highly precise cable laying process.

GARDE / EnergyAustralia Tunnel Video
Click the icon below to download video of the
EnergyAustralia Tunnel Project undertaken by Garde Pty Ltd.

70MB

Sydney Harbour Warning Signs
GARDE has installed warning signs for EnergyAustralia's on Sydney harbour foreshores. These signs include submarine and overheads cable warnings around Sydney harbour, Parramatta and Lane Cove river.