THE PROBLEM:                 

In early 2020, the City of Aurora, IL was contending with a particularly troublesome, 100 year-old water main that ran through a highly congested strip mall.  The 8” ductile iron water main had been shut down repeatedly due to failures and had been totally out of service for over 10 months. The City asked Deuchler Engineering Corporation to assess the situation, determine the reason for the repeated failures and present a long-term solution that would minimize disruption for the community relying on the strip mall.

OUR SOLUTION:

Deuchler reached out to Spray In Place Solutions, the leader in Spray-In-Place Pipe (SIPP) rehabilitation. Spray in Place Solutions first performed closed circuit television video (CCTV) inspections of the 1,310LF of 8” ductile iron water main.  The pipe required extensive cleaning, after which the team conducted a second camera inspection, which confirmed the pipe was in a severely deteriorated condition with multiple breaks. 

Spray in Place Solutions developed a strategy to address the breaks ‘in-situ’ with an 8 foot CIPP bladder patch covering a 5 foot stretch with multiple breaks and a 24 inch bladder patch to cover another single break. The patches were robotically placed, inflated and cured in place. We then used our state-of-the-art ‘SIPP’ spray application system to apply 3mm of Warren Environmental’s NSF 61 approved, zero VOC, single coat, 100% solids epoxy over the entire line.  Spraying over the patches with one  monolithic coating which bonded and adhered to the host pipe ensured that no water would ever get behind the CIPP patches.

Due to the project’s location within a highly trafficked strip mall, a small construction footprint was critical to minimizing traffic disruptions and community dislocation. The crew operated out of only three six-by-six-foot pits, strategically placed so that traffic and the mall’s stores could continue to operate during the project.

Spray in Place Solutions completed the project in just four days, and the company’s SIPP application of a high-build epoxy solved a long running problem for the City of Aurora, IL in a fraction of the time and cost of replacing the lines. Spray in Place Solutions first performed closed circuit television video (CCTV) inspections of the pipe, which required extensive cleaning with specifically designed equipment including multiple pull-throughs of drag scraping and water jetting. After cleaning, it was confirmed the pipe was in a highly deteriorated condition which required the kicks to be grouted via a robotic system before coating.  Once the pipe’s surface was prepped, Spray in Place Solutions applied approximately 3 mm (120 mils) of Warren Environmental’s 301-01 NSF certified high build epoxy in a single coat using its SIPP technology.