Atlanta, Georgia

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!

The post Cured-In-Place-Pipe Key to Successful Georgia Tech Infrastructure Renewal Project appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.

• the trailer each licensee receives;
• all the contents from boiler to winches; and
• a quick look at how the Formadrain cured in place pipe repair system works.

Take a look!

The post Watch Formadrain’s New Video on the No Dig System Trailer Package appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.

Ruptured pipe after Formadrain Cured-in-place Pipe Repair

More and more engineers are finally recognizing CIPP, also known as cured-in-place pipe, as the answer to projects involving the rehabilitation of waste – and now drinking water – pipelines. According to a recent article in Composites World.com, CIPP has been one of the fastest-growing subsets of the trenchless industry since its advent in 1971. Since 1994, Formadrain has been proud to offer this technology to its clients.

CIPP itself consists of resin-impregnated felt or fiber sleeve that resists corrosion caused by even the most caustic and/or acidic materials. When the resin is in an uncured state, it forms a flexible tube that can be inserted into a damaged pipe.

Some sleeves simply require that technicians pull it through the pipe to be repaired. Others are manufactured inside out and invert when technicians push it through the pipe using air or water pressure. Inversion exposes the as yet uncured resin to the inside of the pipe and the external liner then becomes the new internal surface of the pipe.

When a sleeve is in place, engineers inflate it until it fits snugly against the inside of the damaged pipe. Depending on the type of resin used, engineers cure the sleeve permanently into place using hot water, steam or UV light.

In the past, CIPP has been limited in its use for potable water pipe repair because some of the resins used emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) during the curing process. Thanks to the development of no-VOC, no-HAP epoxy resins, though, engineers are turning to CIPP to help them with the daunting task of replacing the 1 million miles of disintegrating drinking water infrastructure that exists in the United States alone.

CIPP is a technology that sustains and improves the quality of human life. It’s a low-cost, low-impact way deal with what is becoming one of this century’s greatest challenges: dealing with waste and water pipe deterioration. Going trenchless with cured-in-place-pipes isn’t just a good idea: it’s an idea whose time has come.

The post Cured-in-place Pipe appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.

Please find their contact information below.

The post Formadrain Welcomes Three New Licencees to the Formadrain Team appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.

Formadrain at the Montreal Home Show 2013

The post Formadrain at the Montreal Home Show appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.

Here is a photo of the Formadrain exhibit at the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo in Indianapolis last month.

The post Formadrain at the Pumper Show in Indianapolis appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.

This solid body hammer by itself measures 34 inches, but engineers are working on developing ram adapter cones for other sizes ranging from 48 through 180 inches. It has already been used with great success in Ontario, Canada, where trenchless technicians used it to install 185 feet of 72-inch diameter steel casing.

Part of what makes this new piece of equipment so exciting is that it can be used for other purposes as well, including pipe installation or extraction, guided pilot bore ramming and horizontal directional drilling (HDD) projects. A unique air reverse system gives operators the ability to control both forward and reverse motion from the control station.

Says one of the spokespeople for this new pipe ramming hammer, “the amount of power [this machine] generates . . . will provide contractors with productivity never before available for the installation of large diameter pipe.”

The 21st century is an age where innovation and versatility are the cornerstones of success. In the no-dig world, engineers are working every day to develop equipment designed to meet the challenges of construction and infrastructure repair projects regardless of size or scope. All jobs are possible with trenchless technology!

And for the best in CIPP technology, Formadrain stands head and above the pack. Our proprietary steam-cured, fiberglass and epoxy system is pulled-in-place through existing pipes. This means it is used to repair underground pipes without digging. With no excavation, it can perform lateral repairs, Lateral-Main-Connection® repairs, spot repairs and process piping repairs.

To find out more, call us at Formadrain at 888-337-6764 or fill out our online form.

The post Trenchless Technology Goes Big with New Pipe Ramming Hammer appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.

It has to. Lives depend on it.

Such advanced and heavy machinery usually have a lot of wiring and draw a lot of current. Electrical conduits are buried and wires crawl under these life-saving monsters. What if these conduits were broken? What if it affected the results? What if it caused a failure in the machine? What if water infiltrated in the electrical conduit? It needs a repair.

Digging is always an option, but just imagine having to shut down a scanner or an MRI for 1 or 2 weeks? Hospitals cannot afford to waste any time, and just imagine the precautions to be taken digging in such a delicate and sterile environment!

Montreal General Jewish Hospital had to deal with such an issue. They started to look for alternatives and found the ideal solution to their problem.

Having heard of Formadrain’s No-Dig Pipe Repair Technology, they submitted the project to DrainExpert in Montreal, QC.

Apart from being in a hospital, which is already somewhat tricky to deal with, the lines featured two 90° bends at each end of the lines to repair. Since three conduits were to be lined, this totaled 6 elbows and 3 straight repairs. Over a short window of time (in the night from a Friday to Saturday), the three lines were successfully lined and no water is to be found in the pipes anymore.

The repair led to practically no downtime in the equipment, no heavy cleaning and perfectly sealed pipes good for at least 50 years, without a single hole made in the floor.

The post Formadrain Technology Used at Montreal General Jewish Hospital appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.

This project is one of a number that have been on the drawing boards due to flooding concerns that have cropped over of the last number of years in the city. Edmonton has been moving forward on 10-year rainwater mitigation plan that started back in 2004.

The Whitemud Drive project entailed driving 140 feet of 84″ OD steel pipe under the four-lane, divided highway. The installation was close to a creek so that rainwater drainage would be improved to prevent flooding that was prone to occur in the area. A 24-in. diameter Grundoram Taurus pipe rammer, made by TT Technologies, Aurora, Ill,was used on the project. Edmonton is unique in that it maintains an extensive in-house program for tunnelling and has been doing its own work since the 1960s.

The installation itself involved installing soldier piles and building a beam and timber wall right up against the roadway so there would be no subsidence of the surface. A 10-ft by 50-ft concrete pad, 6 in. thick with rebar was then poured and on top of that went 1-in. thick steel plates that held the H-beam which the pipe rode on.

The first 40-ft section of pipe had a cutting shoe fabricated on the leading edge. Then the pipe rammer was connected using a tapered ram cone and 84″ cotter segments. The first section took one hour to ram into place when the section section was brought up and welded to the first. The welding job took 18 hours. The segment then took a further hour and 45 minutes to be rammed in. A third 40′ section and a last 20′ section were then used.

After the casing was placed, the inside was completely cleaned and coated with environmentally-friendly, rubber-based product. Small baffles were also welded to the bottom of the casing and gravel was added.

Ray Davies, City of Edmonton general supervisor of open-cut construction said, as far as pipe ramming is concerned, “We like the process very much and plan to do a lot more of it. In fact, we purchased the hammer.”

The post Trenchless Technology Moves Forward in Alberta appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.

Spécialités Lassonde Inc. plant

What if the underground piping of the factory has to be replaced? Just imagine the mess it would make!

Spécialités Lassonde Inc. faced that sort of challenge when they had to redo a section of their floor in their St-Damase, QC plant that produces Canton sauces and Green Giant sweet corn, among others. They already needed to shut down part of the plant and move some operations to tear that section apart. Before covering it all back, a camera was ran through the existing piping to assess their state and figure if they needed to be replaced.

Project Difficulties

Inspections provided disastrous news to the plant managers. Some being there since the construction of the oldest section of the plant in 1933, pipes needed to be replaced beyond the open floor. What to do?

Drain-Net, the local sewer contractor, had heard about Formadrain No-Dig Technologies. DrainExpert from Montreal was called on site to see what they could do about that.

Fortunately, there was good news: Formadrain supplies its contractors with Formapox 301, an industrial resin with high resistance to chemicals. Therefore, even with very acid residual streams created by the production of the different products made there, installing a liner was a viable solution. In its sector of activity, this facility was the first HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) certified plant in Quebec, in 2000. Tearing up the floor from the whole plant was not an option, downtimes and costs being astronomic to break and rebuild in regards to HACCP industry norms. Too much money had been put to make everything in accordance to standards to just tear it all out and redo it all over again.

Project Details

Excited by this new option, management decided to hire DrainExpert to line 150 feet (45m) of 10 inch diameter pipe (250mm) in three different sections of industrial Formadrain liner. With manhole accesses strategically placed already, the task seemed pretty easy to start with.

Pipe material was clay. Or was it? Little did they know that a full 50 feet (15m) section on the outside of the facility was actually an old rain ditch that was covered by a “hat” of plywood sheets and backfilled! The pipe was therefore not round and made of soil and wood! Upon this discovery, the plans changed a little bit. The assembly had to be protected before insertion to make sure the final result was perfectly round and watertight. Once that was taken care of, the project could go on and meet the deadlines.

The whole project was completed in a little more than 16 hours split throughout two and a half days of work.

The post Spécialités Lassonde Inc.- Food Plant Gets Brand New Pipes Without Excavation appeared first on Formadrain No Dig Pipe Repair.