Project Reports

Morrison Utility Services, who hold the joint Western Gas Alliance contract alongside Amec, were recently contracted by Wales & West Utilities to carry out 3.6 kilometres of gas mains renewal in Cheltenham. The company decided to use the Live Mains Insertion (LMI) method of replacing the cast iron mains by inserting new PE pipe whilst the gas still flowed, thus minimising disruption and...

In a project to renew a 24” cast water main in Plymouth for South West Water, Brent Ltd used a pipe pushing machine manufactured by Steve Vick International to insert, in one push, half a kilometre of 400mm diameter PE pipe weighing a total of 22.5 tonnes. The operation was part of an ongoing 2.5 km mains renewal contract. South West Water and Brent have formed an integrated partnership to...

Replacing large diameter cast iron gas mains in city centres always poses enormous challenges for utility companies. Maintaining supply to businesses and homes, limiting the number and extent of excavations and keeping traffic and pedestrian disruption to a minimum are top of the list. One hundred and twenty five metres is not a particularly long project for live gas mains insertion, but when...

  Over 2000 metres of large diameter gas mains have been renewed using the new Steve Vick Pipe Handler in Attercliffe Road, a busy two way street in Sheffield. During the development stages with National Grid, they used the Live Mains Insertion technique to insert the pipe, ensuring customers and business owners experience minimal disruption during the operation. The Pipe Handler...

Steve Vick International has been involved in a pipe sealing project at Sellafield where “a complex set of decommissioning challenges” exist in dealing with the 60 year old First Generations Magnox Storage Pond (FGMSP). The scope of the work covered the removal of redundant pipework in a high radiation area and then cleaning and sealing a contaminated pond wall. The redundant 10cm...

Our Special Contract Service team was in Stockholm at the end of April 2005 to flow stop a 24” low pressure gas main in the very heart of the city, outside the government buildings. A two kilometre section of the main, which was cast iron at one end and steel at the other, was to be abandoned. The team installed two double-skin FOAMBAGS™ at each end of the section. Once the expanding foam...

A Special Contracts Team from Steve Vick International recently carried out a flow stopping project for Manx Gas on two 22” gas mains in Douglas, Isle of Man. Located on South Quay, close to a gas holder, the 200 metre sections of two-way fed main were being abandoned so that governors could be installed in order to connect into a medium pressure system. Two x two-way flow stop operations,...

Procord, the company which manages the land and buildings at Winfrith Power Station, needed to safely seal off two 180mm (6”) underground pipes. These pipes connect pits that are, respectively, 43 metres and 28 metres apart. As the pipes run under a concrete road that would have been costly to dig up and reinstate, Procord decided against removing the pipes, preferring instead to completely...

Live Gas Mains Insertion is a routine operation for Wales & West Utilities. In this project, they used Steve Vick International’s newly improved 125 pneumatic pushing machine with a 5” ram. The operation involved inserting 125mm PE into a 6” main in Wells, Somerset. WWU said that they found the pushing machine as powerful as a hydraulic machine and pushed the 94 metres of pipe in...

The project involved filling a sump and 3-4 metres of redundant 4” clay pipe that contained residual contamination from historic operations. Following several visits to the site and specific workshop trials – and based on previous experience of similar jobs for UKAEA – Steve Vick International successfully completed the sealing off operation using the Foam Bag™ system, in half a...