TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY/Cured-in-place rehab helps city avoid disruption
Elmhurst, Ill., recently completed a $1.2 million sewer rehabilitation using cured-in-place technology. The project required no excavation and proceeded only during working hours, minimizing disruption to residents.
The project involved 75-year-old sewers located primarily in the south and northeast sections of the city. Ranging from eight to 24 inches in diameter, the vitrified clay pipes had cracked over the years, allowing water infiltration and root intrusion.
The city considered open-cut replacement and trenchless rehabilitation of the pipeline, choosing the latter to reduce neighborhood disruption. “We wanted to avoid the disruption associated with lane closures, dust, noise, tree removal and restoration,” says Tony Cuzzone, utility capital projects administrator for Elmhurst.
Elmhurst hired Chesterfield, Mo.-based Insituform Technologies to rehabilitate the deteriorated lines. (The company’s technology includes a flexible liner that is propelled through the damaged pipe using water pressure. Hot water is circulated through the liner, causing it to harden and form a pipe within a pipe.) Crews repaired up to six line segments in a day.
As the project neared completion, the city discovered additional deterioration in the sewer beneath South York Road, a main business corridor. It expanded its work to include the South York segment, again using cured-in-place methods to rehabilitate the pipes. By June 2001, all phases of the sewer project had been completed. Elmhurst had rehabilitated more than 25,500 feet of pipeline in less than 60 working days.
