Bright Lights of Madison Avenue Shine on Trenchless Rehab Project
Author: Benoit Cote
Source: http://www.trenchlessonline.com
Yes, it’s that Madison Avenue — and the new trenchless technology worked better than claimed and did everything promised, plus a whole lot more.
This Mad Ave story is about a pilot project on, or more specifically, beneath, the famed thoroughfare in New York City and spotlights a successful pilot project to rehabilitate a decaying drinking water pipeline. Interestingly, part of the rehabilitation utilized a structural trenchless technology exclusively for drinking water distribution systems. The technology was developed by the Aqua-Pipe division of Sanexen Environmental Services. More than 1.2 million ft of Aqua-Pipe has been installed throughout North America.
The successful outcome from this project now has officials at the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) impressed enough to try it again, this time on a full-scale basis.
The saga began many years ago when officials at DDC put out a request for bids to repair deteriorating water mains along Madison Avenue. The original 48-in. cast iron pipe, some 9,000 ft, was installed back in the late 1800s. The project was awarded to Halcyon Construction Corp., Pleasantville, N.Y., which had the lowest bid. The firm is a multi-million dollar corporation that specializes in solutions for the water, sewer, pipeline, communications and power line construction industries.
According to Purnima Dharia, director of Design Section 3 for the Infrastructure Division at DDC, three solutions were to be completed by the contractor and were part of the original contract documents with plans, specifications and design by DDC. Two of the three solutions have been implemented. The first was lining the larger 48-in. cast iron pipe with HDPE; the second, a significantly shorter and 12-in. diameter section, utilized an Aqua-Pipe structural liner as a pilot project to test the potential of this new technology. The third approach — pipe bursting — has not yet been undertaken.
“The technologies were pre-approved by the New York Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), but had never been tried here in New York,” Dharia said.
While the contractor inserted the HDPE lining into the larger 48-in. diameter pipe sections along the avenue, crews also inserted and formed an Aqua-Pipe structural liner as a test, covering a one-block section (on Madison Avenue in the 60s) that had only a 12-in. diameter main. There was no controversy in that the liner has mechanical properties that exceed all specifications and meet drinking water requirements throughout the Americas (certified by NSF to standard NSF/ANSI 61).
Read the full article here :http://www.trenchlessonline.com
