Pipe Bursting

Calgary faces water restrictions amid Bearspaw pipe repairs

Crews have started critical repairs on Calgary’s Bearspaw South Feeder Main, with work slated to continue through September. The repairs, which began on Aug. 26, involve eight work sites and 21 pipe segments that need attention along the main water supply line.

First look: PipeSense uses pressure waves for leak detection

Pipelines, especially those that carry water, can be hundreds of miles long – so it may not always be simple to know for certain that a leak has occurred, let alone pinpoint the problem.

Editor’s log: The road to rehab intensifies

The 1970s marked a revolution in underground infrastructure with the birth of cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP) technology, allowing pipe repairs without excavation. This innovation, alongside other trenchless methods, has transformed the industry and continues to drive efficient solutions for aging infrastructure.

Aging water infrastructure causes major water losses in Texas cities

Texas’ largest cities lost around 88 billion gallons of water last year due to old water infrastructure and extreme heat, resulting in significant financial losses and increased pressure on the state's water supply.

Water restored in downtown Atlanta after corroded pipes burst, causing two-day outage

Problems arose Friday morning at the intersection of three major water mains west of downtown. Some pipes were old and corroded, complicating repairs in the confined area. Only one worker could access the junction at a time, but repairs were completed by Saturday evening.

Pressurized pipe break causes major sewage spill, prompts road closure in North Portland

The suspected cause of the spill was a break in a pressurized pipe from a nearby pump station responsible for carrying sewage to the city’s main wastewater treatment plant.

New York's West Seneca receives $1.2 million boost for water upgrades

This funding allocation aims to replace sections of water main pipes prone to breakage, thereby enhancing water supply reliability.

Pennsylvania's water infrastructure gets boost with $194 million investment

The federal funding supports 28 critical water projects in the state—addressing issues like lead pipe replacement, system rehabilitation, service upgrades, and environmental contamination reduction across drinking water, wastewater and stormwater.

Groundbreaking advances made with EPBM tunnel constructed below sea level

(UI) — Houston Public Works launched the Surface Water Transmission Program (SWTP) to comply with an HGSD mandate. The 66-inch, 50-year-old pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP) is the primary source for the western part of the city, and its shutdown would impact the system's capacity.

Maui water deemed unsafe post-fire, filters ineffective in addressing contamination

The Maui fires damaged hundreds of drinking water pipes, resulting in a loss of pressure that can allow toxic chemicals along with metals and bacteria into water lines.

Tech lesson for Silicon Valley

(UI) — Trenchless technology has been one of the most important advancements in the underground construction industry and has changed the way utility contractors approach projects. For a recent sanitary sewer upgrade project in Palo Alto, it was trenchless pipe bursting that was making an impact.

Texas water infrastructure failing under growing population

Texas has lost over 30 billion gallons of water because of previously fixed breaks in water lines, according to a report from 2021 from the Texas Water Development Board. Other faults in the state’s water infrastructure account for another 100 billion gallons lost, costing the state over $266 million.

Big changes ahead for Midland's sewage system: 8,000 feet of pipe set for renovation

(UI) — Earlier this month, W. Sugnet Road was closed to through-traffic from W. Main Street to Valley Drive in Midland, Texas, as construction kicked off on a multiyear sewer pipe upsizing project through the Concept 5 Sewer Improvement Plan.

Broken water pipe in Jackson, Miss., leaks 5 million gallons per day

(UI) — The leak at the old Colonial Country Club in Jackson, Miss., wasted an estimated 5 million gallons of drinking water daily in a community that had none to spare, forcing citizens to boil their tap water and businesses to close because their faucets were dry.

Much of Florida Keys loses water pressure after main break

Much of the Florida Keys lost water pressure after a water main broke, blocking traffic along the main roadway on the chain of islands and forcing businesses to close early. It was the third time a water main broke in the past week in the Florida Keys.

Construction Begins to Repair Damage From 120 Million Gallon Sewer Leaks in Florida

Construction has begun to repair damaged sewer lines in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida after nearly 130 million gallons of sewer water leaked over several days last December.

PPI Publishes MAB Guidelines for Pipe Bursting with HDPE Pipe

A new step-by-step instruction document for the pipe bursting installation of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) PE 4710 pipe has been published by the Municipal Advisory Board, an independent, non-commercial adviser to the Municipal & Industrial Division of the Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI). MAB Guidelines for PE 4710 Pipe Bursting of Potable Water Mains (MAB-5-2019) is available free of charge via the Publications section of plasticpipe.org.

Gas Explosion Hits Office, Shopping Complex

A powerful natural gas explosion badly damaged a Maryland office complex and shopping center Sunday morning, ripping away part of the facade and exposing twisted metal, authorities said.

Municipal Advisory Board Publishes HDPE Pipebursting Guidelines

The Municipal Advisory Board (MAB) announced that it has approved and published new step-by-step instructions for the pipebursting installation of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) PE 4710 pipe.

Anchorage Utility Will Drain City Lake to Repair Sewer Pipe

An Anchorage utility is draining a city lake to repair a sewer line.

Pipe Bursting Solution from Inside Park

In California’s San Francisco Bay Area, the Ross Valley Sanitary District faced several challenges on a project to rehabilitate or replace aging sanitary sewer infrastructure.

HammerHead

hammerheadtrehcnless.com The new 22-ton, radio remote-controlled HydroGuide HG2200 completes HammerHead’s line of next-generation cable winches designed for maximum efficiency and ease-of-use in pipe-bursting, slip-lining and pipe-slitting applications. Radio remote-control provides operators maxi..

QuickConnect

QuickConnect, LLC introduced a new line of universal pull heads, pull collars and multi-pipe pullers that make life easier and more efficient for trenchless operators. The products are available for both purchase and distribution. The universal pullhead eliminates the need for multiple pullheads an..

Pipe Slitting Brings Cost, Time, Life-Saving Benefits To Airport

Pilots shout out “clear” to warn anyone they might not be able to see around their plane and to stay away from the propeller. While some pilots starting up their planes at Frasca Field, a privately owned, public-use airport located at the northern edge of Urbana, IL, might have seen men and equipmen..

New Cutterhead Configuration For TT Technologies Grundoburst

TT Technologies recently introduced a new cutterhead configuration for its Grundoburst static pipe bursting system consisting of three specially designed bladed, roller cutterheads in succession. This allows contractors to burst/split large-diameter steel and ductile iron pipes when used with larger..

Pre-Chlorinated Pipe Bursting Gives Historical Community New Water

About a 30-minute drive northwest of bustling Detroit lies Bloomfield Village, a distinctively beautiful, nonpolitical entity within Bloomfield Township in Oakland County, MI. Although in size Bloomfield Village covers only about one square mile, its tree-lined streets, lanes and cul-de-sacs provide..

HammerHead’s Gas Line Slitting Technology An Industry Innovation

HammerHead Same Path Gas Line Slitting Technology is a tooling system for replacing natural gas distribution pipe that cannot be replaced by traditional bursting methods. The tooling is designed for use with HammerHead’s line of cable winches. HammerHead Trenchless Equipment, a Charles Machine Work..

Trenchless Technology Comes To Barbados

Two methods of trenchless construction are being employed in a project to improve the water infrastructure on the island nation of Barbados. Using trenchless methods on this segment of the project allows aging water mains to be replaced while greatly limiting the amount of excavation needed to bury ..

Developing A Bursting Plan

Advice From Another Successful Pipe Bursting Program Leads To Water Main Replacement Project The city of Monroe, NC, is located approximately 25 miles southeast of the state’s largest city, Charlotte. Currently, the city of 34,000 people has approximately 1.6 million feet of water mains ranging in..

When a Town Had Enough of its Brown Water

What would you do if your drinking water was discolored and your water system was more than 100 years old? That is the question residents in the Town of Scituate, MA, were faced with when they voted in favor of a $22 million water pipe replacement project in November 2013. Today, work continues on t..