Fall 2022 Port Moody

2022 Port Moody Sept 28

On September 28 , 2022, Insituform started to line the existing sanitary sewer lines that go through the Old Orchard Park. Insituform® CIPP is a cured in place pipe liner that is installed by pulling through the existing, or “Host” pipe. The sanitary sections of the sewer are installed using the iPlus® Glass process. According to the Instituform website, the iPlus® Glass liner is reinforced with glass fiber and can be cured using an ultraviolet (UV) method. This trenchless CIPP solution is a jointless, seamless, pipe-within-a-pipe. It can be used to rehabilitate pipes ranging in diameter from 6 to 48 inches (150mm to 1200mm).

Unlike the CIPP method used on the sanitary gravity sewers in the park earlier in the month, there is quite a bit of preparation need to complete these projects. Along with the bypass pumps and piping installed for the sanitary forced sewers. Entrance and exit pits need to be excavated and shored with trench shoring cages. The sanitary sewer is a forced main and as such does not have open manholes to install liners through. The entrance and exit pits are paced at predetermined lengths of the pipe main, and are sensitive of the surrounding trees of the park.

The pits were all excavated and shored by the crews of PW Trenchless Construction during the months prior to the relining operations. The ends of the pipe to be lined are cut perfectly square on the day of the burst with a strong section of C-900 Waterman PVC pipe attached with a flexible coupling. This will allow for ratchet straps to hold the liner in place without fear of cracking the host pipe.

The iPlus® Glass installation process is much different than the Insituform® CIPP installation used on the Port Moody Gravity Sewer mains that PW and Instituform installed early on in September. While the camera is being sent up the host pipe for it’s initial inspection the morning of the lining, a plastic liner is attached to the camera rig and pulled back trough the host pipe, along with a pull rope for installing the tugger cable. This plastic liner aids in reducing friction when pulling the  liner through the host pipe and reduces the chance of damaging either.

To help keep the liner in place, a portion of the liner is sent up the other part of the Host pipe that will not be used that day, on the other side of the excavated pit. A sewer test plug is inserted and inflated and does a good job keeping the liner from slipping along with the liner as it is installed. The tugger cable is pulled through and attached to the liner, for pull back. A plywood deck is placed on an angle and the crate with the Liner is placed on top and the end of the liner is attached to the end of the cable and the liner is installed into the host pipe.

Once the liner is installed, at the far end, the “exit pit” where the tugger is located, a steel flange is attached and held in place with ratcheting straps. This allows for steam, air and the control cables utilized for the inflation and curing of the pipe liner to be inserted. At this point, where the liner was inserted, the “Entrance Pit”, the light apparatus is installed and a similar steel flange is inserted and held in place with ratcheting straps. Part of the plastic liner is also pulled over the end held in place with tape and straps. The lighting apparatus is installed in to the bag and the end is tied off. Air is inserted from the far end to inflate the liner and the clear plastic bag around the entrance pit end.

Once the liner is partial inflated, a slit is cut in the plastic and control and power cords are attached to the lighting apparatus. The lights are then placed inside the liner and the end is seal with a flange that allows for the control and power cords to go through the flange while the full pressure is applied. The lights are pulled all the way to the exit pit and the air pressure and heat are applied until the proper settings are reached. The lighting rig has numerous lights that cure the fiberglass resin impregnated liner until it is as durable as PVC pipe.

After a number of hours, almost 6 hours for the September 28, 2022 lining job, the pipe is fully set up and ready to be used. The project in the Port Moody Old Orchard park had a number of sections in a row  to be lined. Over the next few weeks, all the liners were installed, and uncharacteristically for the lower mainland area, the job was completed prior to the rains starting to fall.