Directional drilling with fusible PVC - The Birkdale B Project

Building new pipeline infrastructure in highly congested urban environments is causing some interesting challenges for engineers and construction companies, demanding innovative new pipeline solutions.

The Birkdale Area on Auckland’s North Shore presented such a challenge requiring the installation of a complex new gravity wastewater sewer pipeline using horizontal directional drilling methods. This heavily populated area has high traffic loading, minimal construction space and many existing buried pipe services with variable knowledge of their location.

The new pipeline extended over 1,030 metres distance at up to 28 metres depth and was drilled through challenging ground conditions including sandstone and soft organic material.

Although PE100 polyethylene was originally considered, Fusible PVC? pipe, already widely used in North and Central America, was chosen for its high tensile strength, structural performance and construction benefits for the contractor.

Fusible PVC™ brings a valuable new solution to the New Zealand Asset Manager’s “toolbox”, either as a drillable pipeline material for water or wastewater mains, or a rehabilitation solution, either by pipe bursting or by slip-lining inside an existing host pipe to maximise the resultant internal diameter.