Editorial Echoes #4 Samuel’s Footy Tips

Underground Cabling Photographic Tour

March 17th, 2006 at 08:00am

As regular readers of this blog would be well aware from the recent coverage here, here, here & here, there is some underground cabling going on at Civic, to bring power to a new building which is currently under construction in Civic.

The cabling which runs from the Mount Ainslie substation down to the building in Civic, has been going on for quite some time, and they are finally up to pushing the cables through the conduit.

This map may be of some use in following this article
Map

I took these photos on Monday, and started from the CIT Campus on the corner of Coranderrk Street and Constitution Avenue, by walking up Coranderrk Street where a set of seemingly unrelated cabling is taking place.

Just before the intersection between Coranderrk and Doonkuna Streets is one of these points of cabling.
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street

There is some more near the corner of Coranderrk Street and Elimatta Street
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street

And again near the corner of Coranderrk Street and Limestone Avenue (in the background is Campbell High School, the red and white building).
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street
Underground Cabling on Coranderrk Street

This set of cabling does not obviously appear to connect to any other cabling, so where it goes to from here is a mystery. Although I may have stumbled upon the answer later on in the tour.

From here I made the journey to the Mount Ainslie Substation. Taking photos of major bits of infrastructure in a mildly concealed location does fall into the category of “suspicious activity” and with UEA (the cabling company) staff around, I decided that I should limit the number of photos that I took. The ones that I did take don’t show much, and I would have like to take some more from a better angle, but these will do. Here is one.
Mount Ainslie Substation

There is a lot of conduit floating about on Mount Ainslie at the moment.
Conduit on Mount Ainslie

From the point I was standing on for the last two photos, you can see two points of cabling holes in the ground, the trench path in the distance, the back of the substation sign on the left, and a UEA truck on the right.
Underground Cabling on Mount Ainslie

And another picture of the substation
Mount Ainslie Substation

Around this time an american tourist who was passing by asked me if I was a photographer and what I was photographing.

There is a sign for the substation (which ActewAGL call the “City East Zone Substation” and a sign informing us that the path we are using is a horse track).
Mount Ainslie Substation and Horse Track sign

There is also the back of a sign owned (and marked as such) by Cord Excavations. They have put their phone number (6260 2166) on it, presumably so that if it is lost, and you find it, you can ring them and they can pick it up.
Sign owned by Cord Excavations

And of course I was on the edge of the Mount Ainslie Nature Reserve, which also has a sign.
Mount Ainslie of Nature Park

Here is one of the many cabling holes, featuring one cable and three streams of conduit, which is fairly normal for the current progress of the cabling.
Underground Cabling on Mount Ainslie

And more conduit.
Conduit on Mount Ainslie

And much more conduit with a UEA truck.
Conduit and UEA Truck on Mount Ainslie

It would appear that a trench was dug from the substation to the first road along the path, and from that point on Horizontal Directional Drilling was used. The trench (which has now been dug over) can be clearly seen here.
Underground Cabling on Mount Ainslie

Further down we have another cabling hole.
Underground Cabling on Mount Ainslie

And some of the nature reserve.
Mount Ainslie Nature Reserve

From here you can see the under-construction building, the eventual destination of the cables.
Under Construction Building as seen from Mount Ainslie

Shortly after this two ActewAGL vans passed by and I took a photo of one.
ActewAGL Van on Mount Ainslie

They then stopped up at the previously photographed hole and started working around there.

Then we have another hole, the first one along the Horizontal Directional Drilling.
Underground Cabling in Ainslie

And another one
Underground Cabling in Ainslie

Then there is one down at the corner of Batman Street and Limestone Avenue
Underground Cabling on the corner of Batman Street and Limestone Avenue

Two UEA trucks turned up around this time and the occupants gave me strange looks, so I didn’t take further photos of that particular hole and went on to the next one, which looks like this.
Underground Cabling on Limestone Avenue

It would appear that UEA are using Skippy Bins to store their dirt.
Skippy Bin

Then we have the hole which turns from being parallel with Limestone Avenue, to go under Limestone Avenue and become parallel with Allambee Street.
Underground Cabling on Limestone Avenue
Underground Cabling on Limestone Avenue
In that last photo you can see a fourth conduit, which appears to head in the general direction of Coranderrk, which makes it looks like they are giving that line of cabling a new feed, instead of using whatever feed they were using previously, which was quite possibly the same feed which services Campbell High School. Presumably they will split one of the cables into two so that it can feed Coranderrk Street.

On Allambee Street the holes on a block where things are a bit more likely to get thrown in by residents have been dug over.
Underground Cabling on Allambee Street

By this time it is possible that I had attracted attention for taking photos of all this cabling, and a government car pulled up and the occupant appeared to monitor me for a while before going away.

On the next block, the first hole is marked “Demolition In Progress”.
Underground Cabling on Allambee Street
Underground Cabling on Allambee Street
Underground Cabling on Allambee Street

Another hole has been dug over on this particualr block, although it is unclear why.
Underground Cabling on Allambee Street

On the next block we have another hole.
Underground Cabling on Allambee Street
Underground Cabling on Allambee Street

From here we can see the under-construction building.
Under-construction building as seen from Allambee Street

Crossing the road to the next block I could see some people working on a roof on a building in Argyle Square.
People working on a roof in Argyle Square

And it is possible to see the under-construction building and a crane from halfway down this block.
Under-Construction building as seen from Argyle Square

Where Allambee Street turns into Currong Street there is a large hole.
Underground Cabling on Allambee and Currong Streets
Underground Cabling on Allambee and Currong Streets
Underground Cabling on Allambee and Currong Streets
Underground Cabling on Allambee and Currong Streets

Half way down Currong Street it turns right on to Boolee Street, but the corner was covered in dirt.
Underground Cabling on Currong Street

On Boolee Street there is a sign informing of a road closure during some of the work which misspells Boolee.
Misspelled sign on Boolee Street

And more signs related to the road closure.
Kograh Lane closure

From here you can see the under-construction building.
Under-construction building as seen from Boolee Street

And there is a Horizontal Directional Drilling machine on the corner of Boolee Street and Kograh Lane.
Horizontal Directional Drilling

And the hole just in front of it, where you can see some conduit and the drill piece on the Horizontal Directional Drilling machine
Underground Cabling on Boolee Street

The cabling then goes under Ballumbir Street and through Glebe Park, on the corner of Boolee Street and Ballumbir Street there is are some street signs.
Sign on the corner of Ballumbir and Boolee streets

I then entered Glebe Park through the Galliard Smith Gate
Glebe Park's Galliard Smith Gate

From just inside the park you can see lots of Conduit and their hole in the ground.
Underground Cabling in Glebe Park

Glebe Park is very wet underground, and has always been that way, as such this hole is pretty wet.
Underground Cabling in Glebe Park
Underground Cabling in Glebe Park

From here the under-construction building is highly visible.
Under-construction building as seen from Glebe Park

UEA were moving one of their Horizontal Directional Drilling machine, if you look closely you will see mats under the machine, which appears to be needed for moving the machine on the bricks. The people moving the machine have to move the mats in front of the machine after they get behind it. In the background you can see the new building.
Horizontal Direction Drilling machine being moved

Around this time one of the UEA trucks that passed me on Limestone Avenue entered Glebe Park and the people inside started giggling when they saw me still taking photos. From just outside of Glebe Park I could see more UEA vehicles.
UEA Vehicles

I then took a photo from the next block, on top of where the cable is going, with the path directly in front of, and directly behind me. You can see the under-construction building’s transformer room from here.
Final destination of cabling

I then zoomed in the transformer room.
Under-construction building's transformer room

And one of the “High Voltage” signs.
High Voltage sign

I then took some photos of the under-construction building.
Under-construction building
Under-construction building
Under-construction building
Under-construction building
Under-construction building
Under-construction building
Under-construction building
Under-construction building

I then walked over to the CIT Campus for a cup of coffee at Cafe Yala (with discounts for students) and took these photos of the building from the bridge to the CIT Campus over Coranderrk Street.
Under-construction building
Under-construction building

After this I went and photographed the other main construction site over at section 84 (The Canberra Centre extension), which I will have the photos of, online shortly.

Samuel

Entry Filed under: Canberra Stories

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16 Comments

  • 1. wonko the sane  |  March 17th, 2006 at 3:20 pm

    Sam you should be very careful. Someone might arrest you on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack with photos that detailed. Ever thought of a career as a private eye?

  • 2. Samuel  |  March 17th, 2006 at 3:26 pm

    I was concerned about it, especially after the UEA people gave me odd looks near the substation and along the cabling, as well as that government car.

    As for being a private eye, I don’t think so, but I’ll consider it.

  • 3. John B1_B5  |  March 17th, 2006 at 8:54 pm

    What did you tell the American tourist ?

  • 4. John B1_B5  |  March 17th, 2006 at 9:00 pm

    Workers don’t like having their photos taken …… I’ve noticed this on a number of occassions . Australians tend to get a bit ‘paranoid’ whenever somebody produces a camera in public ……..even now (with all the digital cameras around ) .

  • 5. Samuel  |  March 17th, 2006 at 9:01 pm

    I told her that I was an amateur photographer (well, it’s true) and that I thought it would be interesting to document the cabling process. She asked me what the cables were for so I told her, and then she went on her way.

  • 6. John B1_B5  |  March 17th, 2006 at 11:11 pm

    White or black ?

  • 7. Samuel  |  March 17th, 2006 at 11:19 pm

    The tourist? White

  • 8. Chuck A. Spear  |  March 17th, 2006 at 11:36 pm

    I understand the relevance to the cable laying pics but not JohnB1_B5’s comment about skin colour. Keep us updated Samuel, none of the cables I have laid have come close to the lenght of these ones. Explain yourself John.

  • 9. Samuel  |  March 18th, 2006 at 12:32 am

    John was probably asking about the skin colour of the american tourist I mentioned. From memeory John has an interest in black Americans.

  • 10. Chuck A. Spear  |  March 18th, 2006 at 12:46 am

    Oh ok. What kind of an interest John?

  • 11. John B1_B5  |  March 18th, 2006 at 1:38 pm

    My g/f is an African American .

  • 12. John B1_B5  |  March 18th, 2006 at 5:53 pm

    Mention of “Coranderrk St ” reminded me that back in 1975, a fellow by the name of Harold Falge was holding “Kempo” classes at the church in Coranderrk St .
    He did that at night, as his full-time job was a guard at the (former ) Cooma Prison .

  • 13. John B1_B5  |  March 18th, 2006 at 5:56 pm

    That might have been spelt “Harald” , not Harold .
    Last I heard of him he was running a security business in Cooma .

  • 14. John B1_B5  |  March 18th, 2006 at 6:06 pm

    A quick Google search has revealed that Harald is alive and well , and living in Cairns —

    http://www.haraldshouse.com/

  • 15. Chuck A. Spear  |  March 19th, 2006 at 2:12 am

    Good for you JohnB1_B5. A warm hello to your girlfirend from me. A big hello to Harald too. John, was your girlfriend’s family affected by Hurricane Katrina? I only ask because I have a friend who is African American whose house was demolished. She is living in a caravan at moment.

  • 16. John B1_B5  |  March 19th, 2006 at 11:26 am

    No chuck …..she lives in Maryland, which wasn’t affected by Katrina .


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