Renewal of water main under River Dee Estuary – ensuring water supply for over three million people
Planning the project
The renewal of a two km water pipeline for Welsh Water, which had to be laid via trenchless installation underneath the River Dee Estuary and led through heavily contaminated soil, is one of the challenging projects for the British water industry carried out by egeplast UK. The pipe used was the egeplast SLA® Barrier Pipe, a permeation-tight pipe system for the protection of drinking water in contaminated soils. Welsh Water (Dwr Cymru) supplies 800 million litres of high-quality drinking water to over three mio customers in over 1.4 mio homes and businesses across Wales. To improve the resilience of the water supply for 1,600 properties and businesses in Deeside and to future-proof the water network for additional development, the company needed to replace its existing water mains with two new pipelines.
Laying the double pipes
Pipe installation was central to the success of the project, as the new twin pipelines needed to run in a straight line under the River Dee Estuary on the English / Welsh borders. The project location required trenchless installation via HDD drilling. To tackle the special challenges involved in the installation of the pipeline and to meet the requirements pertaining to the pipe, egeplast UK supplied just over two kilometres of egeplast 355 mm SDR 9 SLA® Barrier Pipe. This measure not only allowed for water supply under high pressure of up to 16 bar, but also ensured the protection of the drinking water, which had to be routed through highly contaminated ground. The pipes were supplied in 12-metre lengths and welded on site under the guidance and with the support of the UK team. egeplast UK supplied heat-shrink protection sleeves for the 355 mm SLA butt-weld joints along with SLA aluminium foil tape to protect the barrier integrity of the joints. To speed up the installation process and to ensure a successful execution of the welds, the pipes were delivered with factory-prepared pipe ends.
Conclusion
Steven Jones, Managing Director of egeplast UK, concluded: “Thanks to good planning, coordination and cooperation between all parties involved, we were able to complete this complex project within a tight schedule and without any serious complications. For this, we owe thanks both to our colleagues from the UK as well as to the team in Greven.”
| Project data | |
|---|---|
| Project description: | Water supply crossing underneath the River Dee supplying 1.4 million homes |
| Challenges: | Maintaining barrier integrity for trenchless installation through a former industrial site with highly contaminated ground |
| Solution: | egeplast SLA® Barrier Pipe system with permeation barrier to protect potable water |
| Installation: | Trenchless installation (HDD) |
| Pipe system: | 355 mm egeplast SLA® Barrier Pipe |
| Parties involved in the project: | Client: Welsh Water Contractor: Clearbore Solutions Distributor: Ebero AG |
Contact
Steven Jones
egeplast UK
Email: Steven.Jones@egeplast.uk
Tel.: +44 1427 875770
© istockphoto.com/Vanit Janthra