Renewal of the Water Pipe under the River Dee Estuary – Ensuring the Water Supply for over Three Million People

Planning of the project

With the renewal of a two-kilometer-long water pipeline for Welsh Water, which had to be installed trenchless under the River Dee estuary and routed through heavily contaminated soil, egeplast UK successfully completed a challenging project for the British water industry. The egeplast SLA® Barrier Pipe was used, a permeation-tight pipe system for protecting drinking water in contaminated soils. Welsh Water (Dwr Cymru) supplies 800 million liters of high-quality drinking water to over three million customers in more than 1.4 million households and businesses across Wales. To improve the performance of the water supply for 1,600 properties and businesses in Deeside and future-proof the water network for further developments, the company had to replace its existing water pipelines with two new pipelines.

Installation of the twin pipes

The installation of the pipes was of central importance for the success of the project, as the new twin pipes run in a straight line under the mouth of the River Dee on the English-Welsh border and had to be installed accordingly using trenchless installation via HDD drilling. In order to master the challenges during the installation and to meet the special requirements for the pipe, egeplast UK supplied just over two km of egeplast SLA® Barrier Pipe 355 mm SDR 9. This not only enabled the operating pressure of up to 16 bar with sufficient safety, but also ensured the protection of the drinking water, which has to be routed through contaminated soil. The pipes were supplied in 12-meter lengths and welded on site under the guidance and with the support of the British team. egeplast UK supplied shrink sleeves for the 355 mm butt welding connections as well as aluminum adhesive tape to ensure the barrier properties of the system. In order to speed up the installation process and ensure that the welded joints can be carried out successfully, the pipes were supplied with factory-prepared pipe ends.

Conclusion

Steven Jones, Managing Director of egeplast UK, expressed his satisfaction: “Thanks to good planning, coordination, and collaboration among all parties involved, we were able to manage this complex project within a tight schedule without any serious complications. Our gratitude goes to our colleagues from the UK as well as the team in Greven.”