In my career with McWane Ductile, I've sold my fair share of polywrap, but the one thing that I haven't really thought about when selling polywrap is the tape needed to complete the installation. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe the biggest reason is I wasn't sure how much tape was required for each roll of polywrap I sold. Therefore, I wanted to take a deep dive into this subject to make it easier for people to know when ordering polywrap how much tape they need to purchase as well.
Have you ever been so taken aback by the structure of a question that your first thought is, “say what? Did they really just ask me that?” In the vernacular-sensitive world of utility pipelines, it happens more often than you might think.
Locking gaskets are the industry standard for dependable, reliable, and easy installation of Ductile iron pipe (DI pipe) in 3-inch through 24-inch diameters. Locking gaskets for DI pipe have been around for more than 30 years and have been used in over one million push joint installations. However, as good as locking gaskets are in 3-inch through 24-inch, there were challenges involved when attempting to install in 30-inch and 36-inch diameter pipe. In this Iron Strong Blog, we will look at the various reason we do not make large-diameter locking gaskets for DI pipe.
Have you ever been on a Ductile iron pipe (DI pipe) installation with restrained joint gaskets and needed to uninstall a previously assembled joint? This is normally prompted by the need to replace a displaced or a “pinched” gasket. Proper gasket placement and attention during assembly is the best way to avoid such conditions, as detailed in a previous blog by McWane Ductile. Unfortunately, the problem often does not arise until the pipeline is hydrostatically tested. In today’s Iron Strong Blog, we will examine the “Dos & Don'ts" of uninstalling with DI pipe restrained joint gaskets.
So, you have an existing water distribution system feeding a small hospital and a military post. Now you need to branch off the pipeline to feed another 30 new houses under construction nearby. How do you do it without interrupting service to the critical facilities already being served? In this Iron Strong Blog, we’ll discuss three common pipe tapping methods used in the water and wastewater industry and the variables to consider when choosing the best method for your waterworks project.
In today’s marketplace, everything is in constant flux. Projects have specific completion times, and material lead times are continually increasing. For a variety of reasons, materials that typically were in stock for immediate shipment now take weeks to months before they are available to ship. You may be considering changing the piping material to be used in your water line project to another type of material. A significant consideration is how each type of piping material requires different lengths of restraint to control the change of direction in the line.
Utility pipelines provide for some of the most basic needs within our society. Essential services, such as supplying potable drinking water to our homes and businesses or sending wastewater away, are possible because of a network of buried pipelines. Whatever pipeline materials are used, they are expected to meet minimum service qualities such as withstanding leakage. This resiliency to leakage eliminates waste of our precious drinking water and prevents polluted soils from wastewater in the pipeline's proximity.
When I first started my engineering career, I was placed in charge of coordinating the relocation of water transmission and distribution pipelines to accommodate the construction of an interstate highway through a city of approximately 180,000 residents. Many times, these projects required pre-poured thrust block restraints due to the amended connections between new and old waterlines in a short timeframe so as not to leave customers inordinately out of water for long periods of time.
Dear Ditch Doctor: Out here in the western United States, we wind up with a lot of pipelines installed up or down serious hills, dare I say mountains as well? We are good at the construction part, yet time after time we struggle with getting a satisfactory post-installation hydrostatic test on the pipeline, especially with inclined installations. Often the pipeline drops anywhere from 20 to 50 psi on the gauge and can do that several times or more until we take some sort of drastic redo/restart on the test procedures.
Whenever the word "rating" is used regarding Ductile iron pipe (DI pipe), a 100-psi surge allowance and a safety factor of 2.0 are consistently included for all wall classes. This leads to conservative yet versatile designs for the long-term performance of utility pipelines of all kinds in various or changing conditions. Hence the basic universal rating for DI pipe is 350-psi which equates to a minimum of 900-psi of hydrostatic pressure containment within the pipeline.
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