United Kingdom Society for Trenchless Technology: UKSTT - August 2003

During the past year the Council has undertaken a comprehensive review of the way it manages UKSTT's affairs, and this has resulted in a number of changes. Our original business plan was established in 1997 and, whilst we have undertaken annual reviews of this plan, the Council felt it was time for a full update to reflect the new challenges that the Society will face in the future. Our initial proposal was to increase the size of the council from 15 to 20, to provide us with additional resources to implement the Society's initiatives more effectively. This change was agreed at the AGM in October, and since then the new Council has been reassessing the management function of the Society and our objectives.

We have established a structure of four sub-committees: which are Policy & Strategy, Member Services & Finance, Communications, and Training & Education. These small working groups will report back

The new UKSTT web-site has now gone live, acting as a portal for the UK trenchless market. The site is aimed at promoting trenchless techniques and their benefits, whilst also keeping members of the society informed of the latest news and events.

The site has a database linking members to techniques and services, and as such is an excellent medium for marketing. Corporate Membership of the society automatically offers a listing on the site,

Insituform Technologies, one of the UKs leading contractors in sewer and pipeline renovation, has acquired the business of Sewer Services. This enables the company to offer a complete range of no-dig renovation techniques, and consolidates the experience, knowledge and reputation of both companies. Clients can now access a total trenchless renovation capability within a single company.

"This is a perfect match," explained Insituform Technologies director Jon Newton. "Sewer Services, like ourselves, has an excellent reputation within the water, canal, highway and rail industries for providing sound, well-engineered and cost-effective solutions to the challenges associated with efficient infrastructure renewal. The acquisition brings all the resources, skills and proven capabilities of the Sewer Services team to the company. These strengths, allied to our own and backed by the substantial resources of our parent company Insituform Technologies Incorporated, promise an exciting future for us all."

Recently our Chairman, Norman Howell, together with members of the British Tunnelling Society and Pipe Jacking Association, attended a second meeting with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Underground Space. This meeting involved a visit to The Underground Electrical Substation at Leicester Square which was arranged by Anwar Sardiwalla of EDL (formerly London Electric).

UKSTT Young Engineer of the year 2003, Miss Rania Gideon of Haswell Consulting Engineers, who received a cheque for £2000 at the Awards Dinner in April, has just returned from her funded learning trip to the USA. The trip included attending the 16th Rapid Excavation and Tunnelling Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans from 16-18 June. The conference included presentations on underground and tunnelling projects, tunnel lining and ground support methods, together with several case studies.

From New Orleans she headed to New York to learn more about the Second Avenue Subway Tunnel. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York City has begun the final planning and environmental impact assessment for the project, including 8.5 miles of new track along the length of Manhattan's East Side, from 125th Street to Hanover Square in the Financial District in Lower Manhattan. It is hoped that construction will commence by the end of 2004. The complexity of the project lies in working in a very busy urban area and tunnelling with shallow cover. Several tunnelling techniques are envisaged due to geotechnical constraints, in addition to tunnelling through existing buried structural formworks and underneath working subways and subway stations with limited clearance.

From New York, Rania headed to Boston to see the famous 'Big-Dig' Project and to learn more about the three box-jacked tunnels under Boston's South Station Rail Yard.

The Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers is holding a seminar on 23 September 2003 to launch the publication of their Safety Recommendations for Trenchless Techniques (IGE/SR/28). These safety recommendations cover a wide range of trenchless methods such as pipe inspection, pipe cleaning, internal pipe repair systems, spray lining, sliplining, close fit lining, on line replacement, pipe ramming, auger boring, pipe jacking and microtunnelling. They are a must for anyone involved in the use of trenchless techniques for the installation, renovation or replacement of water, gas, electricity, communication, sewer and other utility underground plant.

U Mole Ltd, the Cambridgeshire-based suppliers of trenchless installation equipment, have recently introduced the latest versions of their 90 and 180 mm coil transportation and dispensing trailers. The two trailers, based around the well-established Safety Loader and Chute Roller models, have been redesigned with simplified operation, increased safety and reduced size.

Suitable for 50-90 mm coils of PE pipe, the 90 mm safety loader trailer now has a single beam axle rather than independent suspension units, allowing a significant reduction in width. The overall height and length of the trailer have also been reduced, with no loss of pipe carrying capacity. Most significant is the modification to the rocking loader that simplifies yard loading without the need for lifting equipment.

The original Chute Roller trailer has undergone continual development since its introduction in 1995, but this most recent design has seen changes in both height and length, making it more acceptable in the utility marketplace. Coil loading has been simplified with the reduction in the number of rollers and repositioning of the loading ladder to the front of the unit. Other features include a safety cage to the top of the loading ladder, newly sculptured front to eliminate frontal damage from grab wagons, and a coiled pipe-sawing guard for the optional re-rounder to reduce the possibility of painful spring back injury at the end of pipe dispensing operations.

U Mole have recently been appointed as UK distributor for in-trench winching equipment produced by Tesmec, an international manufacturer of cable laying and winching equipment. The 2.5 and 5 tonne winches, capable of holding 500 metres of wire rope, are of fully enclosed twin-capstan design, and offer smooth and quiet operation. Line speed and tonnage is controlled from a single fully-proportional control, with a high degree of safety and control. An automatic load limiter is fitted as standard to ensure preset parameters are not exceeded, and the cable drum features level wind to ensure even spooling of the stored cable. Additional equipment for the winches includes a range of fully adjustable drop-down boom kits to facilitate below-ground winching operations such as insertions, and also a retrofit data logger for recording winching parameters for future inspection.

Precious stones have adorned the fashion dress of women and men throughout the centuries, and the current revival of emeralds for this purpose conjures up a vision of all things green and of outstanding beauty. Throughout Europe, Ireland justifiably maintains the special recognition as the Emerald Isle.

When Murphy International were called upon to lay a pumped sewer pipe beneath the River Liffey in Kildare, as part of the Kilcullen Sewage Improvement Scheme, maintaining Ireland's natural environmental heritage was their main priority. The site, close to Newbridge town centre, was a leafy green glade, the River Liffey set beneath a canopy of mature trees winding its way through this sedate, fertile county on its way to the ever-increasing hustle and bustle of Dublin city.

Wild flowers and wildlife in abundance could be seen along both riverbanks where many a fisherman has idled in the hope of tempting just one of those game fish into his net. Close by was a hamlet whose residents expressed their concerns over possible damage to this picture-book scenery, but soon had their fears allayed.

Bill Burn, Managing Director of main contractor Murphy International, decided to use trenchless technology to provide the required result. He called in Group Water Scheme specialists Erinvale Developments and their Grundodrill 13X horizontal directional drilling rig supplied by TT Ireland Limited of Navan, County Meath, to directionally drill under the river. This method only needed small entry and exit pits strategically placed on opposite banks.

The Grundodrill 13X system was placed in position on the north-west side of the river, ready to begin the required 65 m long pilot bore. The ground at this point was gravel with large cobbles, not the easiest of ground according to Tony Brennan, Erinvale's Drilling Manager. He added, however, that with the new Grundoream interchangeable bladed reamers, the patented 20 ton percussive hammer, and the rig's 12.5 tons thrust and pull back, he remained confident of a successful outcome.

The pilot bore was started and tracked beneath the river, using the latest Eclipse System from DCI and a small boat. Despite encountering very hard ground conditions, the pilot bore was completed in just three hours, dead on target and to the required depth.

Utilx Ltd assisted by Charador Environmental Services, represents in UK and Ireland the Italian company IDS spa, manufacturers of GPR equipment. IDS has had considerable success around the world, especially in countries where utility owners specify that a GPR survey must be carried out prior to any HDD work. In these countries, fully detailed initial GPR surveys are the norm rather than the exception.

Although IDS makes a wide range of equipment including railway ballast sensing equipment and structural survey equipment, they have been particularly interested in selling their RIS GPR system. This provides automatic CAD drawing capability to detail utilities and other underground obstructions directly onto layout plans. The system has easy-to-use but sophisticated software to simplify the interpretation of the underground data.

As the system is provided with seven antennas, with a frequency range from 200-600 MHz, it is able to collect a vast range of data during its field acquisition. This data provides high-resolution information from shallower depths plus information from the deeper levels reached by the longer wavelength radiation. The software is then able to analyse this data to provide a CAD system layout drawing of the area surveyed. In addition, a sophisticated set of algorithms permits the evaluation of ground conditions.