HDPE Bio-liner® Johnstons Creek Naturalisation

The Project

Owned and managed by Sydney Water, Johnstons Creek is a concrete stormwater channel constructed in 1898 and one of Sydney’s earliest purpose-built stormwater drains. This project involves the naturalisation of the creek, located near Glebe in Sydney’s inner west.

The customer was awarded the contract to naturalise and renew Johnstons Creek which involves replacing the old concrete banks with sandstone and native plants and creating a natural planted stormwater system/wetland in nearby Federal Park. The project aims to improve the health and biodiversity of the waterway and improve public amenity by creating a boardwalk, paths and new seating areas.

The Challenge

The customer was tasked with improving waterway health through the creation of a wetland to naturally treat and remove pollutants from the water before it enters the creek and nearby Rozelle Bay. Part of this challenge is to ensure pollutants are removed from the water before it enters the creek and flows into Rozelle Bay. This was achieved by creating a typical bioretention basin, however, these can often be time-consuming and costly for such a small works package. The contractors needed a cost-effective solution that would enable them to deliver the project to Sydney Water on time and on budget.

Our Solution

Garry Gersak, Polyfabrics Technical BDM in NSW suggested swapping out the traditional welded HDPE liners and using a prefabricated HDPE & PP woven liner in its place.

This pre-fab solution is made to the size of the basin, meaning it can simply be unfolded and pulled into place on site. Polyfabrics Bio-liner® HDPE Composite Liner is a premium woven 100% polyethylene fabric with 2 layers of interlocked high-density polyethylene (HDPE) reinforcing mesh built into the liner. This combination offers excellent tensile and tear strength, plus it is cost and time-efficient for the installation team. No welding is required as the product is made in custom sized pre-assembled sheets which can be fitted in place easily when they arrive on site.

Lead time isn’t an issue with Bio-liner, as the liners can typically be made at short notice – often within 3-5 days depending on the shape and total area required. The maximum prefabricated size available is 20m x 100m or 35m x 35m squares, making this solution ideal for many bioretention basins, ponds, tanks, creeks, channels and other similar applications.

For further technical and sales assistance, please contact Polyfabrics on 1300 287 484.