The short answer
The safest, fastest way to divert or hold back water on a construction site is a water-inflated cofferdam — the Aqua-Barrier™ system. It sits standalone on the creek, river or drain bed, fills with the site's own water, and isolates your work area so your crew can excavate, pour concrete, repair a culvert or dredge in the dry. There is no piling, no bed penetration and no anchorage, which means minimal disturbance and a fast set-up and pack-down.
Apex Envirocare is the exclusive Australian representative for the Aqua-Barrier system. We don't just supply the barriers — we self-perform the diversion works with our own crews and plant, or supply, lease and supervise on site if you're running the works yourself. We operate Australia-wide from our Western Australian headquarters and mobilise to remote and mine sites nationally.
Why water-inflated cofferdams beat the traditional options
Most construction teams facing a flowing watercourse reach for one of three traditional methods: sandbags, earth bunds, or driven sheet-pile cofferdams. Each has real drawbacks on a live site.
- Sandbags are slow to build, labour-intensive, leak, and are difficult to remove cleanly.
- Earth or clay bunds introduce foreign material into the watercourse, generate turbidity, and have to be excavated out again — creating disposal and sediment-control headaches.
- Sheet-pile cofferdams require driving steel into the bed, which is expensive, slow, damages the bed, and is often unacceptable on sensitive foreshores.
The Aqua-Barrier avoids all of that. Because it's a reusable PVC bladder filled with water, it:
- Deploys and fills in hours, not days
- Sits standalone on the bed — no piling, no anchors, no bed penetration
- Introduces no foreign fill into the watercourse
- Fills from any water source, including saltwater
- Overlaps at any angle so you can build length, shape and even height around your work area
- Is reusable many times and infield-repairable
How the Aqua-Barrier works on site
Standalone on the bed
The barrier is laid out across or around the area you need to isolate, then pumped full of water. Its own weight and footprint hold it in place against the water pressure on the wet side. This is what makes it so well suited to sensitive foreshores and sediment-retention work — there's no driving, no excavation and no anchorage scarring the bed.
Building shape, length and height
Single units overlap at any angle, so you're not limited to a straight line. You can wrap a barrier around a bridge pier, run it along a bank, box out a culvert inlet, or close off a channel and turn the corners you need. This flexibility is why the system suits everything from a narrow diversion pipe to a wide river stretch.
Working in the dry
Once the barrier isolates the work area, any residual water inside is pumped out and the site is dewatered. Your crew then works on dry ground — pouring concrete, repairing a structure, cleaning a culvert, or removing sediment — while the watercourse continues to flow past on the other side of the barrier.
What Apex Envirocare stocks
Apex Envirocare holds the Aqua-Barrier in stock in two standard heights:
- 1.8 m barrier height
- 2.4 m barrier height
These are the sizes we stock, recommend and sell for the majority of construction diversion jobs. Custom heights are available for unusual conditions, but the standard 1.8 m and 2.4 m units cover most in-stream and foreshore work.
A critical design rule: the system requires a minimum 25% freeboard — the standing water must be no more than about 75% of the barrier height. In practice, at that freeboard limit a 2.4 m barrier holds back up to roughly 1.8 m of water. Getting the barrier height right for your water depth is the single most important sizing decision, and it's where our on-site technical support earns its keep.
Typical construction applications
Apex Envirocare deploys Aqua-Barrier diversion for:
- Bridge, dam and culvert repairs — isolating the structure so crews can work in the dry
- Culverts, canals, diversion pipes and intake/outfall structures
- Pipeline, utility-line and services crossings through watercourses
- Concrete repair and structural work in a creek, drain or river
- Boat ramps, jetties, shoreline and foreshore restoration
- Isolating an area for dredging or sediment control
- Pool and pond maintenance
- Temporary flood protection — holding floodwater off an active work area
A real WA foreshore example
On the Camfield Drive Extension at Burswood, Apex Envirocare used the Aqua-Barrier approach for sediment retention on the Swan River foreshore, working with Laing O'Rourke. Because the barrier sits standalone on the bed with no piling or bed penetration, and can be filled with the river's own water, it was well suited to that sensitive foreshore environment — and Apex Envirocare built its methods to align with WA DWER (Department of Water and Environmental Regulation) requirements for the work.
When Aqua-Barrier is NOT the right tool
Being honest about the limits is part of getting the job done safely. Aqua-Barrier is a temporary diversion system, not a permanent engineered dam. It is not the right choice where:
- The water is too deep — you must maintain 25% freeboard, so water depth can't exceed ~75% of barrier height. The tallest standard unit manages up to ~1.8 m of water and sediment combined; deeper conditions need a taller/custom barrier or an engineered solution.
- Flow is fast — at or above roughly 0.9 m/s (3 ft/s) current, the barrier needs extra freeboard and engineering sign-off.
- The ground is difficult — slick, weak or unstable soils, steep or excessive slope, very uneven ground, or wave/dynamic loads all require a site assessment and possibly external support.
- You need permanent water retention — this is a temporary works solution, not a substitute for a permanent dam.
Where these conditions apply, Apex Envirocare will tell you up front and work through the engineering — rather than sell you a barrier that won't perform.
Supply, hire, or full self-performed works
Apex Envirocare gives you three ways to get the job done:
- Buy the Aqua-Barrier system outright — we're the exclusive Australian representative and supply units, spare parts and technical support.
- Hire/lease the equipment with on-site installation supervision, so your team runs the works with our guidance.
- Full self-performed diversion — our own crews and plant install the barrier, dewater the work area, and manage the diversion for the duration of your works.
With 20+ years in business and a client list that includes John Holland, Water Corporation, Mainroads WA, BHP and Rio Tinto, Apex Envirocare brings the equipment, the method and the field experience to divert water safely — whether your site is an urban creek, a remote mine, or a sensitive river foreshore.
