HDPE Pipe Industrial`s Experiences

Beneath the beautiful parks and beaches of Bridgeport, CT a deterioration process has been going on for years. The area’s cast iron water mains have slowly been eaten away by salt water from the Atlantic Ocean. Over the past several years water main breaks have become a more and more common experience in Bridgeport. Water utility BHC Company, Bridgeport, CT, is tackling the deteriorating infrastructure head on, with a large-scale replacement program.

The wastewater generated in Kaarina, Finland will in the future be carried to a new treatment plant in Turku in a pipeline most of which lies on the seabed. Powerman Oy, a Turku-based civil engineering company, is responsible for installing a ten-kilometre stretch of the line, which is made of DN /OD 800 mm pipes.Upgradings and renovations of wastewater management systems help to keep civil engineering contractors busy, and demanding municipal engineering work is also an important source of work for Powerman Oy.

With the project turning from open cut to trenchless and the potential to burst and replace thousands of feet of pipe, Kemper contacted TT Technologies for technical support. Pipe Bursting Specialist Mike Schwager said, “This project definitely tested everyone involved. We had tough soils, weather and big runs to contend with, but the Kemper crew really rose to the occasion.”To replace the existing 6-inch and 8-inch cast iron water mains, Kemper chose the Grundoburst 800G static pipe bursting system from TT Technologies, Aurora, Ill.

Faced with the prospect of halting new development, the City of Wilmington, N.C. was in need of a repair solution for a section of the city’s force sewer main. After attempts to line the main failed, KRG Utility, Inc., Lenoir, N.C., was called in to attempt a difficult large diameter pipe burst.KRG Utility president Jeff Greene said, “The section of main ran right along side of a busy roadway with telephone poles every 200 feet with power, phone and cable lines. If the pipe bursting didn’t work, the city would have had to shut the road down and deal with the power lines. It could have been a mess.

Springfield Sliplines 30’’ HDPE pipe To Rehabilitate Concrete Water Line.pringfield , Missouri – A growing number of cities are deciding to lean on polyethylene pipe for the next 100 or so years. It is a decision perceived by some to be an unproven venture while others claim there is no better HDPE pipe in the world to deal with the troubles plaguing U.S. water infrastructure. Almost everyone agrees that major infrastructure rehabilitation is needed but the largest problem is lack of funding and not the choice of piping material.

Replacement of an aging pipeline at McChord Air Force Base (AFB), Tacoma, Washington, was made simple when Seattle-based Pape & Sons Construction used a pneumatic pipe bursting system to repair failing concrete sewer pipe.Through trenchless processes like pipe bursting are nothing new in Europe, American contractors, engineers, and municipalities are still discovering the economic and social benefits of these tools.McChord expressed interest in using non-traditional methods such as trenchless technology for the repair

NUCA contractor Michels Pipeline Construction, Milwaukee, WI, recently tackled a water main replacement project for the Brown Deer Water Utility, Brown Deer, WI. The project gave Michels the opportunity to utilize static pipe bursting technology for the first time.According to Brown Deer Water Utility Superintendent Marty Glodoski, the existing cast iron system suffered numerous water main breaks over the last several years.

The University of Wisconsin System is one of the largest systems of public higher education in the country, serving more than 178,000 students each year with 26 campuses throughout the state. When replacing water and sewer infrastructure on University and College campuses, it is vital to reduce the impact of construction to the students, faculty and everyday life. When replacement is required, most campuses have a very small window during Holiday breaks or summer months when campus activity is reduced.

As utilities across the country search for economic solutions for replacing or rehabilitating deteriorating cast iron infrastructure, a water utility in Wisconsin is replacing pipe. The Brown Deer Water Utility has been plagued by failures of aging cast iron water mains. The deteriorating mains have resulted in a substantial number of breaks over the last 30 years. While the utility has opted to repair mains with stainless steel repair clamps and ductile iron sleeves, the cost of repair compared to number of breaks led utility officials to look at alternatives, including replacement.

Static pipe bursting continues to establish itself as a preferred method of pipe rehabilitation and replacement in the United States and North America. Literally hundreds of thousands of feet of pipe has been replaced throughout the US in just the last few years utilizing this trenchless method. Allen Steele Company, Lake Delton, WI is a good example of an established contractor expanding its service offerings to include static pipe bursting. Recently, the contractor took on one of the largest pipe bursting projects ever completed in the middle of the country’s heartland, Wisconsin.

The City of Calgary was faced with the challenge: It needed to provide an additional wastewater siphon across the Bow River to eliminate the frequent sewer backups that occurred during their heavy rain falls.CH2M Hill and others looked at a variety of construction options and eventually decided on HDD using HDPE pipe due to the project constraints and the minimal environmental impact it would have on the project site. The project utilized approx. 1,650 feet of 30-inch HDPE pipe that met the criteria for pullback with the ability to bend and to withstand the stresses of HDD.

With heavy traffic flow and anticipated growth and development, the Corporation of Delta, British Colombia began upgrade work two years ago to its River Road corridor. The corridor serves as a main trucking artery and sees heavy amounts of traffic. Upgrades to the corridor include the construction of new sidewalks, traffic flow measures at several intersections, increasing lane widths to safely accommodate bicycle traffic, as well as general road repair and rebuilding.In addition to surface improvements, the project includes the replacement of an aging sanitary sewer system

The pipe bursting project was being done for Cominco, LTD, Trail BC. Cominco is one of the largest integrated zinc and copper producers in the world. The Canadian company, incorporated in 1906, has operations in Canada, the United States, Chile and Peru. As part of a general upgrade and plant rehabilitation project, a water cooling line was earmarked for replacement. According to Bachand, the burst was especially challenging. He said, "Cominco had a critical cooling line at its facility in British Colombia that had begun to collapse.

High density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe enabled the Region of Ottawa–Carleton to save time and money during the restoration of a deteriorating 915 mm (36-inch) diameter cast iron water main.During the summer of 1999, the 82-year-old cast iron water main under Gloucester Street (one of the busiest streets in downtown Ottawa) was sliplined with HDPE pipe, instead of using traditional open-cut construction.

The LADWP, headed by William Mulholland, became a city agency in 1902. Back then, as a provision for receiving water service from the LA Municipal Water System, the recipientÑbe they individual or governmentalÑneeded to be part of the city. Over the next 40 years, the areas surrounding Los Angeles annexed themselves to the city. Today, the LADWP serves a 468-sq mile (1,216-sq km) territory, maintains 7,200 miles (11,520 km) of pipeline and is the largest municipal water provider in the United States.

The City of Toronto sits on the shore of deep, cold Lake Ontario. The new 1,600mm HDPE pipe intake line installed in June, July and August of 2003 allows 4ºC water to be drawn from a depth of 83m.This renewable source of naturally chilled water serves a dual purpose. First, in cooling 20 million square feet of city core office buildings, reducing greenhouse gases by 40,000 tons per year thus helping to eliminate mid-summer smog.

Tucson, AZ—The city of Tucson Arizona was recently disrupted by the largest sewer bypass operation in the nation's history. Over 20 miles of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe has been fused together in just four and a half weeks to bypass a ruptured sewer line. The 42-inch concrete mainline, which was built about 40 years ago, burst in several places and the resulting deluge caused three massive sinkholes in the downtown area. The repair alone is estimated at over $15 million not including property damage.

The Phoenix Project – The 3,200 LF of pipe bursting included in this project was divided into three segments along Bethany Home Road, Maryland Avenue and 27th Avenue. In July of 2007, the AUI pipe bursting team, including Project Manager Gary Huffman and Project Super intendent Archie Lucero, mobilized to Phoenix to begin the first segment on Bethany Home Road. This first segment would require three separate pulls to burst the 919 feet of 10” VCP with 18” HDPE. AUI’s pipe bursting team subdivided this segment into three pulls to minimize the risk of binding (specifically when passing through the existing sewer manholes)

Performance Pipe manufactured the necessary 8-, 10- and 12-inch HDPE Pipe for the pipeline project. The city, because of its experience with using polyethylene in its gas distribution system, was looking forward to the opportunity to install a fused system using HDD construction techniques. “We have enjoyed extremely good performance from polyethylene in our gas system to date,” Greg Scoby, engineering manager with the City of Palo Alto Utilities Department, said. “In a recent leak survey of the entire gas system we found zero leaks on PE mains.” By choosing HDPE pipe, Palo Alto was able to increase the strength of the system, reduce the possibility of leaking at joints, and limit future maintenance activity while reducing installed cost by utilizing HDD.

The project is part of a water conservation project developed by the Central Arizona Water Conservation District (CAWCD), which owns a 336-mile canal that distributes Colorado River water to a large part of Arizona.Water is taken from the canal through a gravity-fed pipe system that includes 24-to 63-inch diameter HDPE pipe. The water is channeled into a series of shallow ponds that cover approximately 250 acres. From there, it is allowed to seep into the ground where it eventually reaches the natural aquifer. The aquifer acts as a storage facility for future use.

City engineer Fahd Mikhael said that several years ago the city had requested bidding for an open-cut excavation at the site but received no takers. Open cut would have been a prolonged and difficult process, requiring immense dewatering and utility relocation, then repaving the highway and might have consumed half a year in time.With the re-jigged trenchless tender, Windsor-based SLR Contracting Group Inc. stepped up to the plate. SLR, a 2010 amalgam of three companies with extensive sewer and watermain experience, agreed to add more expertise to its knowledge base and learn the pipe bursting method, typically used in smaller water line or individual residential projects.

The Alabama Power Company’s Bouldin Hydroelectric Generating Plant, which uses a dam to generate electricity, had an existing steel cooling water piping system that was in bad condition. Cooling water piping systems cool power generators more efficiently, and therefore are essential to a hydroelectric power system. The steel pipe, however, inhibited water flow because it was rusty and corroded. To prevent future problems with rust and corrosion, Fred Hollis, the hydro mechanical retrofit engineer for the Alabama Power Company, decided to replace the existing pipe with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe because of the material’s long-lasting, leak-free and corrosion-resistant features.

Access to water in the United States is often seen not as a privilege, but as a right. One of the inalienable few - alongside life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.But water is increasingly hard to come by, especially in Texas. More than 83 percent of the state was in severe (D-3) to exceptional (D-5) drought conditions in 2012, and the city of Wichita Falls in particular has lost 70 percent of their water supply in the past two years.

In 1999, the City of South San Francisco was confronted with a cease and desist order from the Regional Water Quality Control Board mandating the elimination of severe wet weather overflows within ten years. The City completed a comprehensive evaluation of their wastewater collection, conveyance, treatment, and disposal system. Locally deficient sewers, undersized pump stations, and hydraulic restrictions in the effluent outfall system were identified as the major contributors to the wet weather overflow problem. A five-phase program was developed to address these conditions.