Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair

Georgia Tech sits on 400 acres of land in downtown Atlanta. When it first opened in 1888, it had just 84 people students. Now it has well over 21,000. While that growth has been a boon for the university, it has wreaked havoc on the environment where the campus is located, especially where storm water run-off is concerned.

Knowing that something needed to be done to improve drainage on campus, university officials recently implanted a program to better manage storm water. And according to Trenchless Online.com, that project has so far been a resounding success, in part because it made use of cured-in-place (CIPP) technology.  This is the same technology that Formadrain developed and its licensees use.

The plan involved the development of what officials were calling an “Eco-Commons,” an on-campus natural retreat comprised of native trees and plants. Built in tandem with the Eco-Commons, the new drainage system would be used to eliminate excess rainwater. It would also serve as the setting for an outdoor lab storm water management and hydrology studies.

One of the biggest reasons university officials chose to go with CIPP technology over open cut methods was that the CIPP method would cause much less surface disruption. The pipe pathway lay beneath numerous on-campus buildings, streets and sidewalks. Open trenches would have caused major problems and also posed significant safety hazards to the students and faculty using the above ground structures.

The project itself was complex and involved the rehabilitation of a pipe that, at 72 inches in diameter, was nine times the size of a typical 8-inch diameter one. It took pre-construction careful planning as well as two crews of trenchless technicians working 12-hour shifts around the clock to complete the task.

But in the end, that concentrated effort paid off: the entire 1,385 foot relining project took less than three weeks. This is a far shorter length of time than it would have taken had the university opted for open cut methods, which would have added months to the project. Better still, the surface environment – which also included a beautiful campus recreational area called Glade Park – was almost completely unscathed.

At Formadrain, we specialize in CIPP technology because we – along with our many clients – know that it’s truly the way to go. Whether you’re looking for a fast, non-disruptive, eco-friendly way to do lateral, spot or process pipe repairs on drainage or sewer systems, contact us!