United Kingdom Society for Trenchless Technology: UKSTT - June 2004
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This new feature lists various activities that the UKSTT Council is actively involved with. Further information can be obtained, in the first instance, by contacting the UKSTT Secretariat.
UKSTT is involved in an initiative with the ICE to address the issue of ‘the recording of underground utilities’ and how this relates to the Traffic Management Bill.
The National Joint Utilities Group (NJUG) is ‘the voice of the Utilities’ in streetworks. NJUG promotes the interests of and seeks to influence the issues facing the main Utilities in streetworks and other relevant matters. UKSTT is working closely with NJUG, and the Chairman of NJUG will give a presentation at the UKSTT’s session at the ICE Annual Conference in Cambridge in July.
UKSTT members are invited to exhibit and demonstrate techniques at the West Midlands HAUC Roadshow on 18 August 2004. Demonstration is free and a stand at the exhibition costs £350 (with £50 off if you book before July).
UKSTT continues to take an active part in the Foresight Initiative for Sustainable Water Management (www.environment-agency.gov.uk/ subjects/waterres/bulletins/679903) and (trenchless technology) Nettwork (www.ttn.bham.ac.uk/).
The UKSTT has agreed to the appointment of a Technical Secretary to give additional support to the services provided for members and in representing the UKSTT in its work with other societies and bodies. The Technical Secretary will be Peter Crouch, who has broad experience of senior roles within the utility sector and experience of bodies such as HAUC, NJUG and Water UK.
The UKSTT is finalising plans for its session at the ICE Annual Conference on the 22 July, which will include speakers from WRc and NJUG.
UKSTT will present papers at the IDS Water Conference, which is an online conference held entirely on the IDS website, www.idswater.com, which opens on 10 May 2004 and runs until 28 May 2004.
The UKSTT will be at the International No Dig exhibition in Hamburg from 15-17 November 2004. There is an opportunity for UKSTT members to display their literature at the UKSTT stand for a price of £150. Further details are available from the UKSTT Secretariat.
Members of the UKSTT Council will be giving talks at Universities throughout the UK in the 2004/2005 academic year to promote Trenchless Technology to engineering students.
The UKSTT is considering the possibility of leading a trade mission abroad. Possible locations include Eastern Europe, Turkey and Libya. Members are encouraged to pass their opinions on this plan to the UKSTT Secretariat.
UKSTT held its 10th annual Awards Dinner on Friday 26 March
2004 at the Imperial Hotel, Blackpool. The Awards are presented to
companies that have achieved the highest standards in their particular
fields of trenchless technology and this year were announced by Chris
Packham, TV presenter and naturalist.
To start the evening UKSTT Chairman Jon Boon welcomed everyone to the 2004 Awards Dinner and gave a short address to the 200 members and guests present. Jon outlined the activities of the Society during the last year, which included his thanks to the outgoing Chairman Norman Howell and to all members of the Committee for their hard work during the year. Jon concluded by giving his vision for the future of the Society.
Chris Packham then announced the shortlisted projects and, after
dinner, disclosed the winners to a very attentive audience. Twenty
eight nominations were received from 19 companies for awards in the six
categories. The following awards were made on the night:-
New Installation – Large Project: sponsored by Severn Trent Water. Won by Corus Rail Consultancy for ‘Watford Bletchley Alliance-Trenchless Undertrack Crossings (Designer)’. Shortlisted were Barhale Construction plc for ‘Lindrosa Road Flood Alleviation Scheme’.
New installation – Small Project: sponsored by Barhale and Haswell. Won by Avoidatrench Ltd for ‘Sea Banks to Brownsea Island, Water Main’. Shortlisted were Clancy Docwra Ltd for ‘Auger bore crossing of the A4, West Cromwell Road. London’, Coffey Construction Ltd for ‘Directional Drilling beneath the N7, Naas Road, Dublin’ and Severn Trent Water for ‘Lysons Avenue Flood Relief, Gloucester (Bristol Road Connection)’.
Renovation – Large Project: sponsored by Byzak Limited. Won by Clancy Docwra Ltd for ‘Thames Water Network Upgrade Programme’. Shortlisted were Laing Utilities Ltd for ‘Huntsman Petrochemicals (UK) Ltd, North Tees Repair Programme’ and K’Nex Pipelines and Cables for ‘Pipe Bursting and Trenchless Renewal for the Gwendraith Valley Sewer’.
Renovation – Small Project: sponsored by Thames Water. Joint winners were Balfour Beatty Utilities Ltd for ‘Avon to Blackdown Trunk Main’ and TJ Brent Ltd for ‘Keeping the Toby Man Happy in Dudley’. Shortlisted was Insituform Ltd for ‘Lynn Road Rising Main, Wisbech’.
Product Innovation: sponsored by South West Water and Ferro Monk Systems Ltd. Won by Brewis Direct / Overboring Systems Ltd for ‘Overboring’. Shortlisted were Enterprise Mangement Services Limited / RSK Orbital for ‘Pipesight – Auto-Referencing and Management of Assets, Survey Data’ and Moseley Moling for ‘Vacuum Excavation’.
Tunnelling/Microtunnelling: sponsored by Environmental Techniques. Won by Barhale Construction plc for ‘Welwyn Garden city Southern Outfall’. Shortlisted were Corus Rail Consultancy for ‘Watford Bletchley Alliance – Trenchless Undertrack Crossings (Designer)’and Byzak Ltd for ‘Skinningrove Relief Sewer, North Yorkshire’.
The Young Engineer Award, sponsored by the Chairman of Blackpool Borough Council and the UKSTT, was awarded to Alec Marshall of Mott MacDonald.
The Awards were presented to the winners by the Deputy Mayor of Blackpool, Councillor Granville Heap. Two special recognition awards were presented by UKSTT Chairman Jon Boon to Norman Howell (Immediate Past Chairman) and Ian Vickridge (Long Service Award).
The evening concluded with entertainment from David Copperfield.
Those who attended the Awards Dinner have responded to a survey of their reactions. Generally, this year’s event was regarded as a success, and thanks for this must go to the organiser, Jack Knight. However, requests have been made for the 2005 Awards Dinner to be held more centrally, and this will considered at the next UKSTT council meeting.
The UKSTT has accepted an offer to present a session at the ICE Annual Presidential Conference 2004 which will be held at Churchill College, Cambridge between Wednesday 21 and Saturday 24 July. The UKSTT session, entitled ‘Facing up to the streetworks challenge’, will start at 15:00 on Thursday 22 July and will include the following presentations:
Steve Kaminik, a Transco network operations manager based in Hitchin,
Hertfordshire, has agreed to represent Transco on the UKSTT council.
Steve is well known in the industry for pioneering and developing new methods for Transco, and he is a member of Transco’s national efficiency team. He commented, “Trenchless Technology is increasingly accepted worldwide as being more efficient, less disruptive, environmentally friendly and more cost effective than traditional methods. I am pleased to be involved with the council.” UKSTT chairman Jon Boon said, “I am delighted that the council once again has Transco representation. I am sure that Steve will make a major contribution to our work.”
Streetworks and their associated disruption is high on the UK Government’s agenda. The issue has caught the attention of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who ensured that a Traffic Management Bill was included in the list of issues to be tackled by the UK Government in the next 12 months, following its announcement in the Queen’s speech of November 2003. In response to the higher profile of streetworks, WRc Utilities undertook a Portfolio Collaborative Research project commissioned by four UK Water Utilities, entitled ‘The real cost of streetworks to the Utilities and society’.
A large proportion of the streetworks that Water Utilities conduct are reactive to events that are largely out of their control (e.g. repairing a burst water main), and these are typically very localised and quick. Planned rehabilitation projects, however, can result in greater disruption to the community adjacent to the streetworks. For these situations, the indirect costs (i.e. those that the Utility are not legally responsible for and which are met by the community adjacent to, and commuters passing through, the streetworks) can be many times greater than the direct costs that the Utility pays.
The project developed cost models for the major indirect cost elements and the indirect benefits to serviceability. These have been enhanced with the WRc Waterfowl whole-life-costing software, resulting in a versatile model that estimates the direct and indirect costs associated with specific water mains rehabilitation projects, which enabled the overall benefits of various rehabilitation techniques to be quantified. The initial findings indicated that, as the degree of urbanisation increases, the benefits of using trenchless or minimum excavation techniques becomes greater.
The end-of-project dissemination seminar took place at the end of March 2004. For further details, please contact Dr Andy Russell on 01793 865130 or russell_a@wrcplc.co.uk
TIGHT-IN-PIPE METHOD PIPELINE REHABILITATION
By using the TT Group’s new Tight-In-Pipe method (TIP), short
length sewage and water pipes can be installed without excavation from
manhole to manhole, fitting tightly within the old pipe. As the outer
diameter of the new pipe is only slightly smaller than the inner
diameter of the old pipe, there is no need for filling the annulus. The
cross-section reduction is minimal, and trenchless connection of
lateral connections is also possible. The special winch design combined
with the Grundoburst, a well-proven pipe installation technique,
ensures safe installation.
The TIP method uses the hydraulically operated Grundoburst 400G to push in the new pipes by means of a cable running through the pipe string to the installation manhole, thereby ensuring the integrity of the pipe joints. Installation speeds of between 15 and 20 m/hour are possible. Small to medium pipe deformation and offsets can be accommodated, and a circular profile restored. There are no creasing problems, and the technique can remedy various types of defect including cracks, leakage and root ingress. The TIP method requires minimal set-up, less space and fewer personnel than many other renovation systems, leading to reduced installation costs.
For details contact: TT UK Ltd, Windsor Road, Bedford, MK 42 9SU. Tel: 01234 342566. Fax: 01234 352184. E-mail: info@tt-uk.com Website:www.tt-uk.com
BRENT KEEPS THE PEACE!
When Brent’s water mains rehabilitation team were asked to take a
look at the twin 36" trunk mains down Haroldsleigh Avenue, Plymouth,
there was a definite feeling of deja vu! Only last year Brent’s
emergency response crews had been hard at work repairing the same
pipeline after it had burst and interrupted supply to thousands of
properties, causing severe flooding and resulting in disastrous
publicity for South West Water. Needless to say, the whole episode
resulted in hundreds of thousands of pounds in expensive compensation
claims, something nobody wanted to repeat. It was apparent that Brent’s
team would be acting as peacemakers and, if the project was approached
correctly, could actually turn bad PR into good PR for their client by
the use of trenchless technology.
After detailed investigation another problem emerged – the twin 36" mains were only 400 to 500 mm apart. Not only was a trenchless option needed to keep the peace, but a robust engineering methodology would have to protect each pipe in turn as work progressed.
After hydraulic modelling and the assessment of various options, the chosen solution was to slip-line both pipelines with 630 mm diameter PE. Comprehensive risk assessments and method statements were required to ensure the safety of operatives working adjacent to the live mains, the protection of the public and adjacent property, and contingency plans should one of the pipelines fail suddenly, which would result in loss of supply to between 25,000 and 45,000 properties.
Good PR and customer care management was a priority. All the likely customer issues were considered early in the planning phase, including providing residents with information regarding road closures, temporary alternative parking, and even shopping and alternative storage for one resident wishing to store antiques!
The scheme took place over a 12 week period, and the plant used included a special, large diameter PE butt fusion machine on hire from Fusion. The team definitely kept the peace, with many happy and satisfied customers benefiting from their approach to sensitive customer care issues, health & safety and environmental matters, and ultimately the use of appropriate trenchless technology.
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