Gas pipes hit the highway

SEMI-TRAILERS carrying 18-metre long coal seam gas pipes have started passing through Banana and Taroom.

The steel is being trucked from Australia Pacific LNG's stockpile at Callide, north of Biloela, to a laydown area outside Wandoan.

Australian Pacific LNG pipeline community relations officer Bill Webb said 10 trucks a day were making the trip along the Leichhardt Hwy to Wandoan and this was expected to double as the project ramped up. He said they had hoped to bypass the Taroom CBD, but Main Roads wanted them to stick to the highway route.

Australian Pacific LNG senior corporate affairs advisor Julieann Taylor said the company was committed to minimising the impacts of pipe haulage on surrounding communities and infrastructure and had consulted with community, local government and other stakeholders over the past 12 months.

"As part of this commitment, we've ensured that our local trucking contractor and drivers have been thoroughly briefed on the entire haulage route and are aware of local traffic conditions including the 40kmh speed limit through Taroom and other towns," Ms Taylor said.

"All pipe haulage trucks have been fitted with individual vehicle monitoring systems to monitor speed and track movement and all pipe haulage movements have been restricted to operation during daylight hours only."

She said trucks would not travel in convoys.

The pipe will be used to construct a 530km gas transmission pipeline to transport CSG from the Surat and Bowen basin gas fields to a liquefied natural gas facility being constructed on Curtis Island. The pipe is constructed in Japan and coated in Malaysia before being shipped to Gladstone Harbour, then transported by rail to the Callide stockpile site.

On Wednesday when Central Telegraph inspected the Callide site, workers were unloading a delivery of 100 pipes off the train.

Ms Taylor said over a 12-month period, 41,000 sections of pipe would arrive in Gladstone.

All the pipe, except that being used along the last 60km to Gladstone, will be transported by rail to Callide and moved by truck.