Boy Scout Camp Installs Polyethylene Piping System

By Drew L. Wilson

A Boy Scout camp nestled on the side of a mountain in Southeastern Oklahoma needed more water. Camp Tom Hale has recently become the premier Boy Scouts of America camping facility in the tri-state area of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, serving over 600 scouts a week. The growth had amplified water needs and the two inch main line feeding the camp was insufficient.

The main line was composed of almost four miles of PVC and runs through the most rugged terrain Oklahoma has to offer in the Kiamichi Mountains of the Ouachita National Forest. To replace the line would put the finishing touches on a project that was pioneered two years earlier.

A total polyethylene pipe water and wastewater distribution system was constructed for the scout camp in May 1999. This increased the number of scouts able to attend the camp and put a strain on the two inch main. McElroy Manufacturing and Horizon Engineering of Tulsa; Cooper Wholesale of Pryor, OK; H. Armstrong of Talihina, OK; and Fred Hardesty of Poteau, OK; constructed the state-of-the-art system that encompasses some 3.5 miles of four inch and six inch PE pipe. The system not only encircles and ties together the camp facilities, it also serves as an underground storage system for the camp's water supply.

The original project is an excellent model for municipalities seeking PE piping systems. Using PE for the system was the solution for this largely volunteer project because of installation ease. The longer life expectancy of PE insures the camp a water system for many generations of scouts to come.

Now that the camp had a totally sealed, PE piping system, it only made sense to use PE for the four inch main that would traverse and snake through 3.6 miles of dense hardwoods and pine, across creeks and over mountains on its way to tie in to the county main.

"This is some of the most challenging terrain I have ever had to deal with," said Silkey. "The project was very demanding but it went quickly because we used coiled pipe."

The team used McElroy's LineTamer to straighten the coiled pipe. It straightens and re-rounds coiled pipe up to 6 inch IPS with the use of hydraulics. It is estimated that the installation is four times faster. The LineTamer was mounted on a Sweetwater Metal Products trailer. The trailer has a hydraulic system to load the 1,200 lb. coils of pipe into a containment cage without having to use heavy equipment.

"We fused two or three sections together at a time and the toughness of the pipe made it possible to pull it back through the woods to put into the ditch," Silkey said. "If other materials were used, a road would have had to be built to get equipment and material back in to the job site."

During the job, some low areas of the easement were so boggy that a bulldozer even got stuck.

"The other materials get the easy jobs that don't put much strain on the pipe during the initial installation," Silkey said. "Many times special backfill is needed around joints to protect the joint. For this project it was not necessary because the butt-fused joints associated with PE are as strong as the pipe itself. Some people don't realize that over the life of the pipeline, the same kinds of tremendous forces that are applied to the pipe during the installation also occur after it is put into the ground. When the earth shifts around, collars and joints that are used in conventional piping systems start to leak. That doesn't happen with PE."

"We had to make a fusion every 600 feet instead of every 20 feet and it only took about 15 minutes" for each joint, Silkey said. "We were able to walk behind the TracStar No. 28 through the narrow path and fuse the pipe wherever the section ended. Whether it was in the middle of a creek or halfway up a steep hill."

The TracStar No. 28 is a self-propelled, all-terrain, self-contained, hydraulic fusion machine that fuses two inch through eight inch PE. Its rubber crawler tracks made easy work of the rocky terrain.

Also, contractors don't have to bid a job with future repairs to leaky joints in mind. And they forget to consider the better life expectancy of PE. The attitude is that a few years down the road the problems will be someone else's. Later, people find that the cost of locating and repairing the line far outweighs the price difference of the material in the beginning.

Camp Tom Hale is an excellent example of what the Boy Scouts of America was started for back in 1910. The camp has the ability to touch more lives now and achieve the purpose of the Boy Scouts which is; to provide an educational program for boys and young adults to build character, to train in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and to develop personal fitness. WW/

About the Author: Drew Wilson is a copywriter and photographer for McElroy Manufacturing, Inc.