Water Pipelines Rehabilitation in Phoenix
In Phoenix, Arizona, there is a single-source water line which delivers water to more than sixty percent of the city’s population. Therefore, as the most critical pipeline in the city, maintaining uninterrupted water supply services is non-negotiable. To this end, the city has undertaken to rehabilitate the existing water line so as to add fifty more years to it. The current water line system is more than thirty years old but needs to be rehabilitated, using trenchless technology.
However, rehabilitating the existing pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe which is already in existence, brings challenges. One of the challenges that the company is going to experience as it implements the project includes extremely confined space in which will need to be built a new redundant line (Najafi and Water Environment Federation 21). The project will be carried out aggressively to be completed within six months at the time water usage is lowest in the hot-climate Arizona State. The trenchless method proposed for this project is pipe lining which will involve digging only one access hole which will be used for repair work.
A parallel transmission pipeline is proposed, but because Phoenix City is a growing city, there is no possibility of doing traditional open-cut excavation. Therefore, trenchless water pipe replacement helps the company carrying out the project avoid costs which are associated with evacuation of long trenches. It also helps the company avoid the disruption of service delivery and ensures that the company does not tear up driveways, city’s landscapes as well as other structures which often occurs when repairing the water ways (Apeldoorn 1). In the traditional set up, the company would have to reroute traffic on streets which can cost hundreds of dollars. The trenchless method is, therefore, more preferable when replacing burst pipes, and pipe-lining. However, it is also imperative to note that the cost of trenchless method varies depending on such factors as soil type, material prices, as well as how the water pipes are buried. This can only be done by a reputable water pipe professional.
Works Cited
Apeldoorn, Steve. “Comparing the Costs -Trenchless Versus Traditional Methods.” International Society for Trenchless Technology Conferencie, Australasian Society for Trenchless Technology, Sidney (2010): 8.
Najafi, Mohammad, and Water Environment Federation. Trenchless Technology Piping: Installation and Inspection. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
