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HDPE For Springfield Water LinesAtlantic Street in Springfield, Mo., is notorious for water line breaks.
It has been cut up and torn up more times than anyone can count to make repairs on a 1925 cast iron water main thatis buried only three to four feet underneath.
Any kind of weather — heat waves, cold snaps, droughts and downpours — can cause the ancient pipe to burst or ripat the joint under the patched street.
A recent polar blast that lasted roughly a week resulted in more than a dozen water main breaks, and every one ofthem occurred on the area’s oldest cast iron lines.
It’s a situation that City Utilities of Springfield wantsto remedy, and it’s why the communityowned utilityserving 110,000 customers in Missouri’s thirdlargest city of more than 162,000 people hasstarted the slow process of replacing its crumblinginfrastructure on a portion of Atlantic Street wheresome 126 water customers reside.
One of the most critical decisions they had to makeat their start of their first major renewal program wasthe type of pipe to use. It had to be durable and ithad to outperform cast iron pipe.
CU engineer Jeff Veteto said that highdensitypolyethylene pipe was their top pick because of itsleakfree system. Not only is it designed to preventwater breaks, it eliminates the environmental wasteand costly loss of water from leaking pipes — anongoing and common occurrence in older waterlines.
Veteto said some municipalities estimate they are losing a third of their water supply to leaks. He believes CU’s waterloss is no more than 10 percent but still significant and not acceptable.
“It’s an extreme amount of money to waste on treating water that’s just going into the ground,” said jobsitesuperintendent James Medlin of Gillespie Excavating Co., the contractor for the project. “I believe HDPE is going tobecome more of a standard.”
Brad Marshall, CU’s contract inspector, said that HDPE is resistant to bursting during freezing and thawing conditionsbecause of its flexibility.
“It costs a lot of money whenever (the main) breaks. It’s an initial cost for CU to do this, but in the long run it will be asavings to have this polyethylene system in place,” Marshall said.
Gillespie, based in Strafford, Mo., is midway through the project to replace just more than a mile of the 8” cast iron pipewith 8” HDPE pipe.
“When we do a test, there’s no leakage. It has to be 100 percent no water leakage or it doesn’t pass,” Medlin said.
Because the cast iron is being left in place under the street and the new HDPE line is being buried in a much deeper6foot trench between the curb and the sidewalk, they did not have to tear up the street.
They are using the same trench to install a 4”mediumdensity PE pipe for gas service which isbeing laid carefully 12 to 18 inches above the newwater main.
Medlin said that the joint trench work requiresdiligence. When digging, they have to be carefulnot to hit telephone poles or damage phone linesand other utilities in the same trench.
An essential component of HDPE pipe’s leakfreesystem is the way it is joined together through thebutt fusion process.
CU encouraged Gillespie to use McElroy’s fusionmachines which are engineered to apply the exactlevel of heat and pressure to seal the ends ofthermoplastic pipe together. When cooled andcomplete, these welds are as strong as or evenstronger than the pipe itself.
Gillespie is using McElroy’s TracStar® 412 fusionmachine to fuse the 40foot lengths of 8” HDPEwater line together. The trackmounted vehicle isselfcontained and selfpropelled so that it glideseasily from their box truck to the jobsite. Itshydraulic features allows the operator to easilyhandle the pipe.
For the smaller 4” mediumdensity PE gas line,Gillespie used the Pit Bull® 14, which is compactand lightweight yet rugged enough to do the job.
Veteto said that he prefers the butt fusion methodbecause you can actually see the beading form oneach end of the pipe during the melting cycle.When the melted ends are forced together, thesebeaded ends are one sign that the fusion was doneproperly.
Thirdparty industry research indicates that HDPE pipe and joints can have a lifespan of more than 100 years.
The water main and gas line renewals are being funded by a threeyear increase in utility rates that took effect inOctober.
Most water mains in the U.S. were unlined cast iron until the 1940s. Though replaced by ductile iron in the 70s and80s, the EPA estimates that 40 percent of all water mains in the U.S. are still cast iron which is susceptible to corrosion,breaks and leaks.
The EPA estimates water infrastructure replacement needs nationwide at $325 billion over the next 20 years.
CU is looking at an April 1 completion date and is very pleased with the progress Gillespie has made toward that goal.The Atlantic Street water main renewal project definitely sets the stage for future projects.
“I mean from CU’s standpoint, all of our projects now are being designed with HDPE,” Marshall said.
McElroy in the NewsGEM Industrial Services, an Australianbased pipe fusion service company,was honored in recent months for a dewatering pipeline system using aMegaMc® 1600 fusion machine which helped rescue a flooded coal mine.
Read the full story
McElroy’s machines are featured in a Nov. 22 article and video in TheOklahoman entitled Devon building pipeline system to serve emerging oil field.
Devon Energy Corp. is installing oil, gas and water lines to service wells incentral Oklahoma's Woodford oil shale.
To read the story and watch the video, click here.
Hydraulic Clamping Feature Now Optional on TracStar®Series 3The evolution of McElroy fusion machines and accessories has been driven, in large part, by the specific needs of ourcustomers.
As a latest example, we are now offering the TracStar® 500 Series 3 with or without the Hydraulic Clamping feature.Hydraulic Clamping is the standard option that is typically the most desirable configuration. But we understand that amanually clamping system is sometimes preferred for a variety of reasons so we are making that option available aswell.
We believe this will give you the flexibility to meet every jobsite’s unique demands.
Both versions will still include the various other enhancements over previous models such as the indexermountedheater and facer powered by the onboard generator as well as the economy engine throttle setting which helpsconserve fuel and reduce noise by throttling down the engine to idle during low engine load demand.The Series 3 fuses pipe from 6” IPS to 20” OD (180mm to 500mm).
Read more about the TracStar 500 Series 3.
Go to McElroy University to watch a video of our sales manager Vince King fusing a 12” IPS highdensity polyethylenepipe using the TracStar 500 Series 3.
Order McElroy’s 60th Anniversary 2014 calendar
If you didn’t receive one of our free 2014 calendars capturing many of the highlights in McElroy’s 60year history, order
yours now.
Use this calendar to follow 2014 and the evolution of our equipment. Each month focuses on a fiveyear window fromthe company’s origins and early products to the present as we continue to advance into global markets with the mostreliable and efficient products in polyethylene fusion.
January is a busy month for trade shows in India! Our international team just returned from the Everything About WaterExpo in New Delhi, India, where they showed off many products including the TracStar ® 412 and the newDataLogger® 5. Then from January 2022, they will travel to Chennai, Tamil Nadu for the Water Today’s Water Expo.
Stop by and see us at any of our trade shows across the globe wherewe will be exhibiting our fusion products for both HDPE and PPRpipe.
Here’s our schedule for the first half of 2014:
Water Today’s Water Expo (Stall BJ9)Jan. 2022, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, IndiaAHR ExpoJan 2123, New York CityUCT (Booth 139)Jan. 2830, HoustonInternational Builders’ ShowFeb. 46, Las VegasAquaTherm (Booth 8430)Feb. 47, Moscow, RussiaCONEXPO (Booth 5827)March 48, Las VegasINDOWATER (Stall CB03)May 79, Surabaya, IndonesiaSingapore International Water Week (Stall B2C28)June 15, SingaporeAWWA ACE14 (Booth 514)June 812, Boston
January is a busy month for trade shows! From the 9th through the 11th, our International team is at theEverything About Water Expo in New Delhi, India showing off a TracStar® 412, the new DataLogger® 5 andmore! If you happen to be at the show, stop by and say hi – we're stall 134, 139.Jan 9thCome see Team McElroy at @EA_Water in New Delhi Jan 911. We're showing off T412, DataLogger 5 &more! Stall 134/139. pic.twitter.com/r0a3AvGyQS
Jan 9th
Alliance for PE Pipe WaterWorld Water Tech Online North American Society of Trenchless Technology Plastics Pipe Institute
© 2013 McElroy Manufacturing
