Metro Trains – Water Main Repair (Case Study)

Greenline Pipe Repairs Installation

Using our Greenline solution, Nuflow South West repaired a 21 metre long faulty pipe (150mm water main) made of a combination of ductile steel and copper. The client, Metro Trains, requested repairs for the pipe located at the Metro Trains Service Depot in Cooper Street, Epping.

The problem

Metro Trains were advised by the local water authority that a constant un-metered water leak outside their service depot needed to be repaired immediately. The water main that had failed was feeding the fire hydrant booster for the depot.

It was unknown at the time the leak was identified, but the reason the pipe leaked was the failure of the copper pipe where it joined the ductile steep pipe. The copper acted as a sacrificial anode, causing corrosion, and the copper pipe eventually failed.

To make this repair more complex, the 150mm main pipe ran under a main road. This made it impractical to excavate the pipe to replace and to find the leak. The constant leak had also started to show signs of causing damage to a main road, so the repair was urgent.

The solution

Nuflow South West completed relining the pipe and fixed the leak without causing any disruption to the depot and without the necessity of closing off a busy main road to traffic in only three days.

The cost saving was huge compared with the costs of the traditional ‘dig and replace’ method which takes longer and requires expensive heavy machinery and labour costs.

Additionally, relining the pipe using Greenline has stopped any future failures in the line as the copper pipe will no-longer act as an anode, ending the corrosion permanently.

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