Sections of the HDPE pipe for the canal were fused together and then floated in the canal until they were ready to be pulled into the host pipe. |
The original plan called for Phase II to be done in two sections. The first would use high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe to be sliplined using the old pipe along a canal and under an interstate highway. The second section, in a residential area, was to be repaired using cured-in-place pipe (CIPP). During the bid submittal phase, however, Ric-Man proposed to slipline the entire project, which would save MDWASD more than $4 million. If sliplining and HDPE pipe were not used, it was estimated that excavating trenches and replacing all the old pipe would have cost tens of millions of dollars. This would have also required shutting down roads for months, possibly years, during construction and causing massive inconvenience.
“Sliplining 17,160 feet of 72-inch PCCP with 63-inch DR32.5 HDPE pipe was accomplished in 11 individual pulls,” explained Dan Lacross, project manager with Ric-Man. “These ranged from about 600 feet to more than 3,000 feet in a variety of locations from along a canal bank to underneath Interstate 95 and down the middle of a residential street.”