VICTORIA, Australia, May 17, 2010 -- Construction companies in Northern Victoria have been awarded over AUS$91 million worth of contracts to help with the continued modernisation programme of the irrigation system in the area.

The works will start this week throughout the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District (GMID) and include the installation of regulator gates and on-farm meters as well as 44 kilometres of channel lining.

The contracts will see $40 million being spent on the regulator gates installed in the major backbone channels, over $18 million to set up on-farm meters and over $32 million of channel lined with a High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) product.

Major regulator gates and structures will be installed in the backbone channels of the system and three local companies have been awarded the contracts.

J & C Reid Earthmoving Pty will undertake the installations in the Pyramid-Hill-Boort and Torrumbarry irrigation areas, Kyabram Excavations Pty works will be in both Central Goulburn and Murray Valley irrigation areas and Ward Bros Earthmoving (Aust) Pty will install the regulator structures in the Rochester Irrigation Area.

Over 44 kilometres of channel lining will be installed over the next three months in an effort to capture water savings from water currently lost in the delivery of irrigation water.

Murray Smith, CEO of the Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Project, said: “It is great to see this project employing companies from the region or those that have established offices in the GMID. This project is not only assisting to rejuvenate an old irrigation system it is providing hundreds of jobs in the construction industry.

"Throughout this winter irrigation shut-down period we expect that there will be construction staff working at 150 sites daily as they install over 600 regulator gates in 420 channel regulator sites, as well as work at over 50 channel lining sites."

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