Secure Wastewater Pipe for Industrial Development in East Brandenburg

The construction of a wastewater transport line for the discharge of wastewater from a newly established industrial plant via a pumping station into an adjacent sewage treatment plant presented all parties involved with major challenges: Firstly, a federal highway was underpassed. Secondly, it was necessary to avoid damage to property in forest and settlement areas. Thirdly, in one section, the pipeline crosses heavily contaminated soil. There were suitable product solutions in egeplast’s portfolio for these three challenges.

Integrity checked after trenchless installation

The planned and newly constructed waste water pressure pipe with a total length of approximately 6.5 km ran over a distance of 160 m from the industrial site directly under the highway (BAB10 – eastern Berlin ring road). Instead of jacking a steel protective pipe, an egeplast SLM® DCT pipe string OD 400 mm in SDR 11 was directly pulled in using the HDD method, thus creating the possibility of checking the string for damage after the Installation. The positive result was recorded in the construction documentation.

Avoiding damage to fields

In the further course, the pipeline ran over a distance of approx. 4 km through various forest and settlement areas. Here, the main focus was on avoiding damage to property and interfering with the infrastructure or public life in the region as little as possible. Pull-in lengths of at least 200 meters each helped to meet these requirements. In order to also minimize the risk of damage to the newly laid pipe, the egeplast SLM^® 3.0 protective jacket pipe, also in the dimension OD 400 mm, was used.

Protection of the medium from contamination

It was already apparent in the preliminary planning that the subsoil of a section contained highly contaminated soil.
However, it was not possible to deviate from the planned route. Therefore, suitable precautions had to be taken for this approximately 500 m long section in order to protect the medium to be transported from any contamination. Without this protection, the biology in the sewage treatment plant would be severely endangered.

20-meter lengths of SLA^® Barrier Pipe with numerous molded parts were used to consistently rule out permeation of pollutants and to avoid additional contamination of the wastewater being transported.
A watercourse crossing was also necessary in a locality along the route. Due to the confined conditions on both banks of the watercourse and deeply penetrating sheet pile walls, Installation using the HDD method was not possible. The crossing was instead carried out using a complex console construction in which the pipes were attached to the bridge in a steel protective pipe. For this purpose, egeplast SLM^® 3.0 protective jacket pipes and various special molded parts such as multi-level bends and other individual construction components were installed, which were planned, drawn and completely prefabricated in egeplast system technology, and therefore only had to be integrated on site.

In January 2021, the construction project was completed after a construction period of eight months. The pipeline has been in trial operation since then. The outstanding permits have also been granted and the plant was then officially put into operation on March 22, 2022.