When damages to their stormwater infrastructure were uncovered, a major New Zealand exporting company was looking down the barrel of some costly and invasive repairs. They needed an alternative to a pipe replacement if they were going to maintain operations without major interruptions and significant expenses. Luckily, Nuflow Tasman was ready to help with a quality relining solution.
Discover how they used their shared expertise, knowledge, and drive to find a solution to this complex problem.
Service line work uncovers structural damages
Large fruit and vegetable exporter, Enzafoods, is based on a lot of land located in Nelson, New Zealand. Recently, they decided to compress their operations by 50% and lease out the remaining space available on the property. Because of this, they needed their plumbing service lines split, including their stormwater, sewer, and potable water systems.
The team from Nuflow Tasman has an ongoing maintenance contract with Enzafoods, so they were enlisted for the task. An added bonus for Enzafoods – their base of operations was just down the road!
As the team was working on separating the services and conducting CCTV camera inspections for surveillance reasons, they noticed a structural issue with the 1050mm reinforced concrete stormwater drain pipe.
Asset locations make for big pipeline problems
The service lines of the Enzafoods property were all in one trench, and it appeared that 4m of the storm drain pipeline had been damaged during the installation of other assets. The contractor handling the installation likely struggled to get the depth they needed, and as a result, caused damages to the top of the stormwater system.
This damage had gone unnoticed until the team from Nuflow Tasman had come in to do their work. Had the damage continued to go undetected, the impacts would have been significant. The nature of the work on site meant there was a lot of traffic loading, with trucks constantly going in and out. This could have resulted in the pipe caving in, causing a slump, and putting pressure on the services above. The more the structural integrity was compromised, the more likely it could have caused the services to burst, which is a much bigger and more costly problem to fix.
This made finding a solution vital. Because there was live power, fire mains, and water mains over the damaged pipeline, things couldn’t be fixed from above without major works. Plus, the sheer size of the pipeline would have made for extensive excavations. Luckily, Nuflow’s pipe relining was able to save the day.
Informed assessments reveal Sumoline solution
First up, Nuflow Tasman requested details from the client around traffic loadings, soil density and other important data so they could be as well informed as possible in the creation of a custom, fit-for-purpose liner. Once this information was obtained, the team was able to leverage the expertise of Nuflow’s technical and installation support division.
Together, they decided that Sumoline would be the best solution to fit. This liner has been specifically designed to structurally repair infrastructure where load bearing capacity is critical, making it perfect for a storm drain in a high traffic area. The idea was proposed to the drainage engineer, who promptly approved it.
The large size of the pipe required the creation of a custom 6m vinyl bladder for curing purposes, so once this was done and all the relevant testing completed, Nuflow Tasman was able to get started.
An installation against the tide
In order to safely complete the work, traffic needed to be diverted around the two manholes Nuflow Tasman would be using as access points to complete the reline. This was done very easily, with little impact to the business. The reline itself however, posed a unique challenge.
Because of the location of the stormwater system, ground water infiltration could become a problem and affect the relining materials. This meant that the team had to work around the tides when installing and inflating the bladder for curing.
Of course, because the majority of the curing needed to happen overnight, ground water intrusion from high tide still posed an issue. This is where Nuflow Tasman’s close proximity to the site came in handy. Project lead, Mike, set up a water pump and checked it throughout the night until the tide went out. He didn’t want to risk any compromise to the reline and demonstrated Nuflow’s commitment to quality with his efforts.
After the curing was completed and the bladder removed, there was just one more thing to do. The damaged section contained a lateral, which is a section of pipe that branches away and feeds water from the downpipes of surrounding buildings into the stormwater system. This lateral was covered during the relining process, so that section needed to be removed in order to fully restore the system. Nuflow Tasman used a milling machine to drill this out and return things to better than new.
From there, they logged the job in the Nuflow app, recorded batch numbers and materials for quality control, and provided a GPS mark of the installation site.
Nuflow Tasman saves the day
Enzafoods was very happy with the end result. Not only did Nuflow Tasman save them from a big headache down the line if the problem hadn’t been detected, they were also spared from a full replacement. This would have been a massive excavation that majorly restricted operations. Plus, a range of professionals would have been required to look after the different service lines above the stormwater system. That made the relining work from the Nuflow team a big cost and time saver.
Talk to Nuflow today
If you need any kind of pipe repair, structural or otherwise, we can help. Nuflow offers a range of relining solutions to suit a range of plumbing and pipe problems, so give us a call and see what we could do for you.
