SVI Grout Filling assists complex reinforcement project at the Caledonian Canal, Inverness

The Steve Vick International Contract Service team recently assisted gas distribution company SGN on a project to divert a gas main across the Caledonian Canal near Loch Ness.

The project required the new gas reinforcement main to be laid under the Caledonian Canal at Torvean, Inverness.

This project, due to the complexity of the canal crossing, had been delayed while other options were explored.

In 2017, Highland Council had drawn up plans for a new section of road with a new swing bridge crossing to be installed on the canal at Torvean, Inverness. SGN Operations Team Manager, Alex Torrance, contacted the Highland Council and it was agreed that SGN could install a new gas main across the canal when it was drained for the new swing bridge installation. The canal was dammed and drained in early 2020 and the new gas main was laid through the drained section, positioned in a sleeve under the soon to be constructed swing bridge.

Once the new main was in place the SVI Contract Service team provided grout filling operations to fill the annular space between the new, one hundred metre, 450mm PE sleeve and the new 250mm PE gas main.

The SGN & SVI Team Onsite at The
Caledonian Canal – Photo taken 11th February

The grouting enabled the void between the two pipes to be filled so that, when the weight of the earth and water from the canal was re-instated, the newly inserted gas main was protected from the risk of damage and the unnecessary ingress of extraneous matter or animals.

The SVI Contract Service team carefully calculated the quantity of grout required and a total of 9 cube was used.  The grout filling operation took just five hours to complete.

SGN Operations Team Manager Alex Torrance commented, “We were delighted with the work Steve Vick International carried out for us on this project.  The gravity-fed grout offered a safe, fast and cost-effective solution to filling the annular space and will help prevent damage to the newly installed gas main in the future.”

SVI have a rich history of working on a variety of grouting projects for different industries.  SVI have used grout to fill old fuel lines on the air side of Heathrow Airport where the airplanes taxi and have also completed a number of railway projects such as the A2 railway crossing in Dartford where grout was used to fill the annular space in a 120 metre long length of pipe.  More recently, SVI were asked to carry out several grouting operations, to fill annular spaces, on the Highways England scheme to improve the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon.