Hundreds of Kilometers of trenchless pipes successfully installed
By Newton Mthethwa
Trenchless Technologies has been in existence for more than two decades, and was specifically formed to cater for the growing need for non-disruptive, cost effective solutions to pipe laying problems in South Africa.
Trenchless technologies is a 70percent BEE owned company with services that include directional drilling, horizontal boring, pipe ramming and microtunnelling for new pipeline installations, pipe bursting, pipe reaming, sliplining, Sekesui(RibLoc)Spiral-Wound piping, CIPP/ softlining fo rexisting pipeline replacement and rehabilitation as well as CCTV pipeline inspection,.
The continued growth of the organisation can be attributed to the fact that it immediately filled a need in the market for boring small diameter holes beneath the roadway to install electrical conduits and water piping, using earth piercing or moling tools and pipe ramming.
The company additionaly acquired the Terra Hammer agency for Southern Africa in 1994 along with the range of percussive hammers from 65 to 210 diameter, which allowed the company to undertake a full range of horizontal boring for pipes from 25 to 160 mm, pipe bursting from 110 to 315 mm as well as pipe ramming up to 400 mm.
“We made good progress in pipe bursting for various municipalities that could see the benefit of not digging up their streets and pavements as well as the cost savings achieved, and our main focus for many years remained pipe bursting”, explained Sam Efrat, Managing Director for Trenchless Technologies.
As technology continued to improve, Trenchless Technologies became more versatile, offering a wider range of more tailor-made solutions. In 1997, the company acquired their first horizontal directional drills, followed in 2004 with the undertaking of the first cured in-place pipe (CIPP) project. In 2006 the company acquired the SPR EX (Expanda) and SPR PE (Ribline)technologies, and in 2011 the SPE RO (Rotoloc) spiral wound piping technology.The company is currently looking at fold and form and epoxy lining solutions to further expand its range of services, explains Efrat.
Trenchless Technologies has managed a sustained continued growth since inception and according to Efrat, “We experienced an average 20 percent year-on-year growth and expect this trend to continue, fuelled by the impending investment in water infrastructure needed to secure Southern Africa’s water resources, as well as the continued fibre optic network roll-outs”.
In addition, the company expects the trenchless rehabilitation market to grow from a R500 million per year industry toR5 billion per year, as well as anticipating the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) industry to continue to grow in tandem with the fibre optic network roll-out, and this is expected to continue for several years with the “last mile” and fibre to the home and business.
In 2012 the company was awarded the International Society for Trenchless Technology (ISITT) annual project award, for its ‘Port Elizabeth Goes Trenchless project’ which was nominated from 27 affiliated trenchless societies worldwide. The Port Elizabeth project entailed the rehabilitation of two parallel sewers located in the central business district (CBD), which was originally designed to use only the spiral wound technique throughout, however the site conditions required the additional use of CIPP and pipe bursting at certain locations.
“The project is an excellent example of using trenchless technology options to address unexpected site conditions, allowing the project to be completed successfully without excavation and surface disruption”, stated Efrat.
The company made use of several trenchless techniques to overcome the challenges posed by the project, which included spiral wound pipe expansion to a close fit (both SPR EX and SPR RO technologies), spiral wound pipe grouting in-place (SPR PE), ambient CIPP, UV CIPP and pipe bursting to successfully complete the project.
The ABSA Bank Energy Centre Sleeves Reticulation project has been the most challenging and interesting for Trenchless Technologies, adds Efrat. The project required the installation of 85 sleeves using HDPE pipe from 110 to 710 mm, up to 16 m deep beneath roadways, to connect several of ABSA Bank’s CBD buildings with gas, electricity, fibre optic, chilled and hot water.
According to Efrat, a number challenges were encountered during the undertaking of the ABSA Bank Energy Centre Sleeves Reticulation project.Though they were not insurmountable they included the following:The basement floors that were to designed to support the weight of a typical sedan vehiclenecessitated propping from the floor below to add support to all areas over which the HDD drill needed to travel to get to the required position within basements. A floor to floor height restriction, requiring that all equipment be less than 2.1 m in height- leading to the Terra-jet being refitted by removing the operator cabin, rebuilding the hydraulic tank, as well as lowering the encapsulation body work.
In addition, 65 installations took place in clay, while the remaining 20 were in rock, and this necessitated the use of percussive hammer and rock reamers to expand the holes to the required diameters. Other challenges involved drilling through lateral support ground anchors which were encountered during drilling in dozens of locations. In order to gain access to the drill face coring to remove concrete, lateral walls from 300 to 500 mm thick were also required.
Trenchless Technologies has become a trendsetter in the trenchless technology industry and in the past 20 years, the company has successfully completed hundreds of contracts, and achieved a number of awards which included the 2000 SAICE Pretoria Branch Award for Technical Excellence, 2007 (SASTT) Award of Excellence for the Rehabilitation of Sewer Pipes in Klipspruit Basin, together with Johannesburg Water and consultant Vela VKE, 2009 (SASTT) Award of Excellence for the ABSA Bank Energy Centre Sleeves Reticulation project, 2010 CIDB Construction Summit Award for outstanding performance in South Africa’s construction industry, and 2012 (ISTT) International Project Award for the rehabilitation of two parallel sewer pipes in Port Elizabeth’s CBD.
