Relining Pitch Fiber Sewers in the Channel Islands, U.K.

The Channel Island of Jersey is the largest of the ChannelIslands and lies in the Bay of Mont St. Michel off the coast of France.

Since 2000, Bell Services Ltd., the island’s Dyno Rod franchise holder, hasbeen lining drains across the island, initially using polyester based resinliners on mains of 100- and 150-mm diameter along with a few pipes of 225-mmdiameter and one of 400-mm diameter. The company undertakes drainage work formunicipal, commercial and domestic customers.

Since 2004 the company has only been installing epoxy or silicate resin basedliners in the 100-, 150- and 225-mm diameter range. According to Paul Stephens,manager of Bell Services, “We find installing epoxy or silicate resin basedliners easier and quicker than lining with polyester resins and we can do thiswithout the hassle of importing dangerous chemicals into Jersey, all of whichmust come in by boat, meaning that it was something of a nightmare as thechemicals had to be shipped separately. We have also found it very beneficiallining with epoxy and silicate resins as they bond to the host pipe. This hasenabled us to line all types of pipe material and these products are especiallygood where there is root ingress. We currently use the German-manufacturedBrawoliner system, from KOB [Karl Otto Braun KG] of Wolfstein.”

Since starting to use the Brawoliner system some 2,000 m has been installedin 100- and 150-mm diameter, with some 225-mm diameter installations. The workhas been undertaken in close association with CJ Kelly Associates Ltd., anindependent sewer renovation consultant and KOB’s technical representative inthe United Kingdom and Éire.

The Brawoliner system is manufactured to ISO9002 standard and uses a seamlesslining textile fabric that is applicable to pipes from 75 to 255 mm in diameter,with wrinkle-free installation around 90 degree bends. The system is generallycompressed air inverted from an inversion drum and can be used as an ambient orhot water cured installation.

Pitch fiber drainage pipe was installed in vast amounts during the late 1960sand 1970s, which has meant that Bell Services has been called upon to re-roundand line both domestic and commercial drains made from this material.

A typical example of a project undertaken by Bell Services includes therenovation of a pipeline serving a number of blocks of flats managed by RumseyManagement, totaling around 50 residences, on a private estate in St. Brelade,Jersey. The sewer system serving the community was a 150-mm diameter pitch fiberpipe, running at depths of between 1 and 3 m, which on CCTV inspection showedsome deterioration, although not to the point of collapse.

The project as a whole included the open-cut replacement of some of thepipeline, but large sections of the work could be rehabilitated using liningtechniques. In all, some five lengths were lined using manhole-to-manholelining. The lining runs included two lengths of 100 mm in diameter that ranbeneath buildings, one length of 100 mm in diameter that ran under a garage, one86-m long section of 150 mm in diameter that lay beneath a road and, ultimately,two further 45-m lengths of 150 mm in diameter. All of the installation siteswere in sandy ground.

The majority of the installations were completed with relative ease usingstandard compressed air installation, although prevailing conditions on the 86-mlong run meant there were difficulties in completing the inversion. Havingexperience with the long lining run, Bell Services decided to reduce the lengthof the final linings by installing a new manhole halfway along the proposedlength. This allowed the final lengths to be made as two 45-m runs instead ofanother single 90-m shot. This approach meant that the project was successfullycompeted on schedule.

At another site, the company encountered badly deteriorated 100- and 150-mmdiameter pitch fiber pipe that ran beneath a shopping center. This job wascomplicated by several factors, including that one of the shops had laid aconcrete floor over a manhole. The manhole at the head of the run was situatedin the back of a bank and the bottom end of the run passed through two manholesin a shop that was open for business from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.

The project entailed providing adequate temporary toilets and washingfacilities for both the male and female staff, which was achieved by providing alarge portable unit at the rear of the property. The work was undertaken overone weekend starting on the Saturday in the bank and lining 35 m of 100-mmdiameter pitch fiber pipe through the bank, a drycleaners and a hair and beautyshop. The work finished on the Sunday, at the other end of the shopping center,with the lining of 20 m of 15-mm diameter pitch fiber pipe beneath thesupermarket and a medical clinic. All the work was completed without anydisruption while satisfying the requirements of the security team in the bank,as well as both the maintenance teams at the bank and at the supermarket. Thelatter was achieved with the presentation of method statements and riskassessments. In an interesting aside, the section of pipe beneath thedrycleaners had to be lined with a silicate resin system due to the extremetemperatures of the wastewater coming from the business.

Bell Services also undertook a successful operation to line an aged anddeteriorated clayware pipe running under a bar in the island capital of St.Helier. The pipe ran from a 2-m deep manhole in the rear of the bar and underthe building. Its diameter changed from 150 to 225 mm at about 9 m in, with aninline junction serving the bar and a neighboring property at about 20 m intothe run. From here, the pipe then ran out into the street beneath a busy roadand into the main sewer, at approximately 3 m deep. The job entailed lining the150-mm diameter section in one direction, to the point of the diameter changeand lining in the reverse direction on the 225-mm diameter section, again up tothe point of the diameter change, from an excavation outside the bar. Theoperation was completed using a Patch Box installation, a localized repairlining system jointly developed by Ant Hire Ltd. and CJ Kelly Associates Ltd. inthe United Kingdom, which was used to cross the diameter change point sealingthe linings and joining them together. The junction in the pipeline was thenopened using a robotic cutter.

Rescue Mission
In a rather unusual turnof events, Bell Services quoted for a project involving the re-rounding andlining of foul drains serving a block of flats. This involved lining beneath theflats and under another property back to three internal stack pipes.Unfortunately, the initial tender was unsuccessful. However, while attempting tore-round the pitch fiber pipe, the company employed to undertake the workdamaged it causing it to collapse at a point under the neighboring property. Soconsequently a new drain had to be installed around the building. The companyundertaking the project lost confidence and decided not to try to re-round andline the remaining three runs under the flats to the stack pipe.

Bell Services was asked if it was still prepared to undertake the remainingwork, which it was more than happy to do. A plumber cut and removed the bottomsections of the stack pipes and the pipeline was re-rounded and lined from therelevant manhole up the stack pipe and into a piece of pre-cut, 110-mm diameteru-PVC pipe. This allowed the plumber to connect the new pipe work directly ontoa u-PVC coupler, leaving the client pleased with the outcome.

These operations, and others, have shown very effectively the flexibility oflining for smaller diameter pipeline repair works.

Ian Clarke is a freelance writer and owner of No-Dig Media, based in theUnited Kingdom.