The City of Lansing water distribution system is approximately 70 years old. As with many water systems of this vintage, lack of valve maintenance has taken a toll on the Illinois town's water system over the years. Antiquated valving, broken or neglected valves (due to lack of exercising) has put serious constraints on the city’s ability to control its distribution system.
In the older part of town, main breaks have plagued the city. City staff also had problems with making repairs during one of their recent leak surveys. Many times city crews had to make the needed repairs to the system under pressure. For one leak near the local high school, the repair would have required turning 13 valves, putting out of service half a subdivision and shutting down the high school.
David Zagorac, Superintendent of Water & Sewer, had been pro-actively installing valves for years, but with a limited budget he could only put in a few new valves each year using the existing linestopping technology.
Recently, Anthony Giglio of Southern Underground Services of Calumet City, IL, introduced Zagorac to the EZ Valve insertion system from Advanced Valve Technologies (AVT) of Blue Island, IL. Unlike linestopping, the EZ Valve only requires one excavation.
The AWWA specification valve (C-509-01) can be installed in under an hour. The insertion system uses a resilient wedge gate that expands to seal the ID of the pipe and is rated at 250 PSI. The insertion machine cuts a 1 5/8” slot, 120 degrees across the top of the pipe. By using the patented slotting technology, there is no pipe integrity loss as in all other systems presently available.
Southern Underground Services is an approved AVT installer and has put in over 40 valves since purchasing the EZ Valve system from AVT last fall.
“We hired Southern Underground Services to install an eight inch valve near our high school, where we have been having trouble with main breaks,” Zagorac said. “The installation only took 45 minutes, and by installing the EZ Valve in this location, we were able to avoid having to replace nine valves to create the same shut down capabilities.”
The valve insertion system works on ductile iron, SDR, C-900 and cast iron pipe. It is currently available in sizes 4" – 16". The system is light weight and compact enough to be transported in the trunk of a car. Advanced Valve Technologies will display the system at its booth during the ACE '08 exhibition. More information on the system can be found at the company's website, www.avtfittings.com.
