Accredited Entities and Unitywater Collaboration Space

Will the newly created policy of temporary dead-end water mains are no longer than two metres from the last water service be applied to industry developments, as the service locations here are not pre known.

Blair and I are here....we're waiting for questions, and discussion, hit us with the best you've got.

We are here and waiting.

Simone, Unitywater

The recent uCertify newsletter stated the new drawings for large diameter water meters comes into effect from 30 April for new designs.  Can Unitywater confirm that existing projects with existing approvals that reference SEQ-WAT-1108-4 & 5 will be permitted to "run their course"?  Or is the expectation that any projects delivered beyond 30 April adopt the new drawings (noting that the newsletter states that 1108-4 & 5 become obsolete form 30 April)

Unitywater specified watermain boundary offset is 1.5m with +/- 100mm horizontal tolerance. Can you please confirm if this 100mm tolerance also applies at property truncations where a PE main is used with cold radius bends for deflections. If too large a cold bend radius is used the alignment of the watermain can exceed the tolerance (i.e. cuts the corner locally at the truncation), but usually still falls well within the relevant Council service corridors (e.g. Sunshine Coast Council allow water/sewer between 1-3m from boundary as per RS-100). We would like to consider eliminating some smaller bend fittings (11.25° & 22.5°) with large radius cold bends that would reduce the number of butt weld's/flanged fittings required.

Problem statement: Unitywater wants to ensure the age of water in water mains is as low as possible to maintain Unitywater's high water quality standards. 

Temporary ends of water mains are a concern when they exceed 2m.

Section 5.10.2 of the Seq code requires the water agency to define the requirement for temporary dead end mains. 

Questions: 

1. How does Unitywater maintain water quality standards without stipulating that the need dead-end water mains not to exceed 2m?
2. What does other service providers you work with do?
3. What should be defined as temporary?
4. What is the Seq code missing, e.g., the standard drawings are they missing anything?
5. How  should we communicate changes or updates in the future?

Hi Unitywater,
The SEQ Water Supply Code Clause 4.1 General advises, in summary, in carriageways road crossing need to be PVC-O PN20 or greater or as an alternate PE or DICL could be used.

The Code to paraphrase defines Carriageway as a public road assigned to movement of vehicles. And also refers to Local Roads . In the Code Local Roads are defined as roads under control of local government which carry less than 200 commercial vehicles a day. Then also refers to Roads. Roads according to code is a surface devoted to public travel and covers entire width between opposite boundaries in a road reserve. Then refers to trafficable area. This according to the code refers to any area where vehicular traffic is likely eg. road pavements

So, Laneways appear to tick all these boxes to be classified as a carriageway, laneways can service as little as a few lots to 30+ lots or more. And some have internal intersections in a road reserve and most will cater for a vehicle loading of a MRV/HRV and/or a council refuse vehicle.

Can Unitywater pls provide some clarity on whether Laneways are Carriageways. Or define when the higher class of water main road crossings should be adopted noting water mains regular cross under Lanways in verges.      

Did you know that anyone taking bacto/water quality samples of drinking water needs to be NATA accredited?

Recently, we've become aware of a testing company in NSW who offers drinking water quality sampling but they're not NATA accredited yet and therefore the results would not be valid.

The company have applied, and are expecting to receive an outcome by the end July.

We wanted to flag this as Unitywater cannot allow live works (water) where bacto's have been undertaken from non-NATA approved drinking water quality samplers.

You can check that any company conducting bacterial testing associated with water connections has the appropriate NATA accreditation. Search accredited organisations - NATA 

A snippet is provided below of what the data base shows for the company in question, we've blocked out their names/details for obvious reasons - you can see they're approved for some testing, but water quality sampling is not listed.

The SEQ Code requires several considerations for designers in relation to hydrant locations.

Unitywater is seeing a trend where designers are placing hydrants in locations that specifically address the crest or low point, however, are not achieving the required alignment with the side boundary. We would like to remind our partners that designers are required to consider crests and low points as well as +/-200mm from side RP boundary requirement. An SOAS must be provided when not achieving the requirements for +/-200mm from side RP boundary. If an SOAS is not submitted, the design is deemed to have errors and Unitywater would seek for these to be resolved. 

This is preferable at approval, or otherwise prior to, or at, pre start. If it has slipped through all those cracks and construction and installation has been completed, Unitywater will allow the installation and provide the certifier with written instructions as outlined above for future projects and monitor this where pre start has occurred prior to 30 June 2024.

Unitywater considers it acceptable for hydrant locations to be at or near crests and low points in order to also achieve the side boundary alignment requirement. This negates the relevance of a SOAS stating the crest or low point location prevents hydrants being placed in alignment with side boundaries.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. 

Can Unitywater pls advise when SEQ WS&S D&C Code –Asset Information Specification Section 6.20 Revisions are applied.
This relates to consultant design title blocks, consultant red-line title blocks and consultants as-cons with Unitywater title blocks. 

Consultants are required to provided Unitywater Design Red Line mark ups.
The SEQ Code does not go into any great detail of what exactly this is.

To ensure conforming submissions can Unitywater please provide a Design Red Line mark up policy.