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Maryland Creek GPT Design

Designing a gross pollutant trap to protect wetlands from upstream urbanisation

  • Maryland, New South Wales

    Maryland, New South Wales

Protecting our environmental heritage through smart design

In an increasingly urbanised environment, maintaining environmentally sensitive water catchments is especially important within our towns and cities. Recognising this, the City of Newcastle engaged our team to design a gross pollutant trap (GPT) at Maryland Creek. Their goal? To reduce the level of gross pollutants and coarse sediment from the increasingly urbanised upstream catchment ending up in the downstream wetlands.

Initially, our team developed a water quality model to quantify the expected levels of pollutants and how large the collecting bay would need to be to align to desired maintenance frequency. Further hydraulic and hydrological models were then used to determine the impact of the device on site flood behaviour and upstream flood levels. Once the impacts were modelled, we ran a design process to assess different concept device layouts and placements with regards to functionality, cost, accessibility, flood impacts, and aesthetics. We then completed a detailed design of the final device, an online GPT, for implementation. The major challenge for the project was ensuring that the GPT design was able to deal with significant flooding events and is able to protect the downstream wetlands.

Now operational, the GPT has seen no problematic upstream or downstream impacts in flood events and has succeeded in protecting the wetlands. 

At a Glance

Offices
Client
  • City of Newcastle Council
Meet Our Team

Sara Belgrove, Business Leader, Community Infrastructure, Northern NSW

The best part of my job is working with others to build their skills and capabilities and create a strong team ethos.
Sara Belgrove Business Leader, Community Infrastructure, Northern NSW Read More

Trent Halvorsen, Structures Lead, Northern NSW

Engineering is like solving a puzzle, at times it can be solved with a robust process while other times you need to think outside the box.

George Ashworth, Geotechnics Lead, Northern NSW

Each member of the team contributes specific skills and talents—adding their strengths makes the team stronger as a whole.

Ian Piper, Technical Services Manager, Geotechnical

My real love is the problem solving—based on many years of experience, it never gets old.

Sara Belgrove

Business Leader, Community Infrastructure, Northern NSW

Trent Halvorsen

Structures Lead, Northern NSW

George Ashworth

Geotechnics Lead, Northern NSW

Ian Piper

Technical Services Manager, Geotechnical

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