An average of approximately 500 linear feet of pipe was fused each day.
Performance Pipe’s PE4710 HDPE pipe was selected for the project based on its flexibility, resistance to corrosion, and 50-100 year design life. Over 40,000 feet of the pipe was heat fused and installed using open-cut, direct burial construction. It is the largest HDPE water transmission pipe project in the United States.
Installation of the pipeline began in early 2010 and was completed earlier this year. The entire raw water pipeline has been successfully pressure tested.
The pipe was fused using a mobile McElroy fusing machine with a separate generator. A computerized datalogger was used to record each joint’s heating time and temperature, fusing time and temperature and cooling down period.
The 53-foot sections of HDPE pipe weighed approximately 5500 lbs. Each fused joint was provided with a unique embedded joint number and the contractor included this information on surveyed as-builts. The owner will be able to identify exactly where each joint is located in the future if needed. There are over 800 fused joints in the completed pipeline.
An average of approximately 500 linear feet of pipe was fused each day. Depth of bury varied from six to eight feet below ground.
A large portion of the pipe was installed through environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands, protected species habitats and preserves. Contractors and construction management staff successfully met conditions of a detailed Environmental Resource Permit, including strict restrictions on turbidity discharge, seasonal work restriction on scrub jay habitat area, and restoration of wetland areas.
The raw water pipeline portion of the project included over 10 miles of turbidity barrier and silt fencing. Part of the project included providing training materials (i.e. documents, videos, etc.) for work crews to inform them of environmentally sensitive issues related to the pipeline installation.
