I am an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering/Commerce student that has been working in the pipeline industry with Rosen Inspection for one and a half years. I am representative of the majority of undergraduates and recent graduates that I know in the industry, in the fact that I am based in the office and have been for the duration of my short career, making decisions that directly affect the work that takes place in the field. A job then came up that I had all the necessary experience for and I got an opportunity to experience life in the field.

The job was based in Sydney, in which Alinta was commissioning a pipeline that was being hydrotested by contracting company AXS Pty Ltd. My job was to fit and initialise a pipeline data logger (PDL) and gauge plate to a Rosen bidirectional cleaning pig that was to be run during the hydrotesting.

It is an excellent experience right from the moment you awake. Instead of casually waking up, making some breakfast, choosing what shirt to wear and then making your way to the office some time before nine, its hop out of bed at 5:30 am, jump in the shower, chuck on the overalls, force down some breakfast, tighten up the boots, slap on the hard hat, double then triple check you’ve got all the equipment and off to site before the sun has fully risen.

The first thing you notice is how friendly people are onsite, all welcoming you to their team. I was instantly fascinated in everything going on around me. Everybody was getting on with their jobs without hesitation or questioning – it is like they have done it all a million times before. The headers had been hydrotested and were in the process of being dewatered, all of which was new to me. Peter Johnson (Pedro) with 25 years experience in the pipeline industry and Rob Bennett of AXS were always willing to explain to me everything that was going on. I was learning the simple things that many of the more senior employees take for granted, such as the process of cutting and welding pipe together.

I fitted and initialised the PDL, taking due care such that all this hard work everyone was doing around me was not going to be let down by myself. We then loaded the pigs into the header and travelled down to the launcher site. It was there that Pedro explained all the steps involved with the hydrotest, including testing the pipe would not fail, testing for leaks and then the process of dewatering. A pump was used to extract water from the river and fill a supply tank which ensured that the pump which pumped water into the pipe was always primed and that no air was pumped into the pipeline.

The hydrotest was successfully completed and the pipe was ready to be dewatered. The method that Alinta had to use for the testing required the water to be blown out the receiver end of the pipeline, as the EPA would not permit the water to return to the river. This contrasted with normal practice, and the receiver was 94 m above the launcher, which presented an additional challenge that AXS were able to overcome. The process of hydrotesting and dewatering was occurring 24 hours a day and as such shift work was necessary.

Whenever I was onsite I was learning and gaining new experiences and it made the work exciting. I gave Pedro a call on the one night I had off, telling him I was going to come and meet him onsite. He told me to relax or go sightseeing but he wasn’t going to keep me away and in 15 minutes, I had joined Petro and Rob in the fresh night air. That night AXS finished the majority of the dewatering and the next day the header was cut off and the tools retrieved. I took off the PDL and downloaded all the data onto the laptop, confirming to Alinta that the PDL run was successful.

The learning curve whilst being in the field was nothing short of sensational. To get the opportunity to actually see things happen must be an essential part of any engineer trying to develop their career. My favourite part of the experience was meeting the different people, all of which have stories of their experiences that they are more than willing to tell. I came back from the few days onsite with a great deal more knowledge and understanding of the way in which pipelines are constructed and commissioned. It is something that I highly recommend to any other young pipeliners and I will not hesitate to take any future opportunities I get to go onsite.