If you live in East Lowry, you have no doubt noticed long sections of 30” pipe, open manholes, closed intersections, large pumping machines, and strange track mounted machinery. The long sections of pipe have been in the parkway on Dayton for 7 months! Phase one rehab (last October/November) was North of 11th on Dayton – Phase two was south down by Lowry Blvd.
Inliner Solutions has just completed rehabilitating thousands of feet of very old 36” sewage pipe using a cured in place process. This miraculous process is done in a few days and saves months and months of disruption compared to the traditional process:
1.Excavate 2. Extract old pipe 3. Install new pipe 4. Bury new pipe 5.Redo roadways
Imagine the disruption of this process compared to the cured in place process:
Step 1. Bypass the section being rehabilitated. The Bypass is what the on-surface plastic pipe is all about. Large diesel engine pumps suck out the pipes upstream of the repair site and send the sewage downstream of the section being rehabilitated. The Bypass involves the large green Sunbelt pumping machines as well as the track mounted infusion machines that basically weld the plastic pipes together to form a continuous pipeline. The need for a single continuous pipe is what caused the city to have to leave long sections on the side of the street over the winter (after phase 1 last year) to avoid having to cut it all to transportable lengths (and reweld it for phase two). Lucky Dog Contracting is managing the pipe moving process as well as all the street crossings, barricades, bollards, and signage.
Step 2. Inliner Solutions cleans the old pipeline. Begins with cameras inserted (into the old pipeline) that can travel inside the pipeline to assess the condition. Then high-pressure jet washers are inserted into the pipeline. The jet washers then travel the length of the pipe, power washing the inside of the pipe.
Step 3. Once the precise dimensions and condition of the pipe is known, the crew orders a custom-made lining from their local facility in Kiowa. After another cleaning, the custom made lining is resin-saturated and installed into the old pipe using air pressure. Once in place the crews use hot water and steam to cure the resin. The lining hardens into a durable pipeline that will last as long as 50 years!
Congrats to the cities of Denver & Aurora, Inliner Solutions, Lucky Dog, and Sunbelt for completing the project in mid-May. Equipment demobilized, pipeline cut to transportable lengths and removed, streets re-opened and cleaned up, unseen pipeline rehabbed for another 50 years of service.
Thanks to our Lowry United Neighborhoods Board member Tom Oury for writing this detailed and informative article.