Trenchless Technology – Microtunneling & Pipe Jacking

Utility services especially water and sewage represent a major investment by municipalities and governments around the world. As the urbanization particularly in the developing world grows, more and more of the world population is located in cities.
Utility services such as water and sewage in most cities have been installed for many years and were designed to cater for a smaller population. Many are now overloaded. This is further complicated by poor maintenance.

Many cities around the world are now faced with a major investment in renewing and upgrading their utility services particularly sewage and water. In cities and in urban areas, these utilities are located underneath roads and pavements making access difficult in areas congested with traffic and buildings. Construction and repair work carried out from the surface, disrupt traffic and frustrates the local residents as it affects their quality of life.
The other utility services such as power, gas and telecommunications are found close to the surface. With the increased population, sewers need to be much larger in diameter. Sewers which rely on gravity for drainage have to be laid at precise levels. Furthermore, in order that they can avoid the other existing services, sewers have to be installed at greater depths.

Open trench installation of deep sewer pipes is expensive and a major health hazard. More and more governments around the world are demanding and specifying that the installation of water, and sewage utilities in cities and urban areas be carried out by using Trenchless Technology that minimizes the requirements for surface excavation and can significantly reduce the environmental impact of underground pipeline installation.


Trenchless methods avoid surface disruption, are environmentally friendly and, in many cases, reduce direct construction costs whilst saving on both surface disruption and traffic congestion.
Even in developing countries in the Asia Pacific region where there has been unpredicted economic growth coupled with a rapidly expanding urban population, the benefits of Trenchless Construction are being understood, accepted and used.
Microtunneling and Pipe Jacking are one of the Trenchless methods being used particularly for installing pipes of 225mm to 3000mm diameter for use as both sewers and for carrying water.
 

Microtunneling-Operation

 

With this system. Two vertical shafts are inserted into the ground. The depth of these shafts is dictated by the depth the pipes will be installed at. The shafts can be spaced up to 500 meters apart.

From the bottom of one shaft, a specially built tunneling machine makes a tunnel into the other shaft. The head of a tunneling machine revolves as it is pushed through the ground.

The machine is pushed through the ground by hydraulic jacks. As the machine is  jacked through the ground, a jacking pipe is inserted through the shaft and jacked together with the machine. The the second pipes is inserted and jacked. This process is repeated until the machine reaches the reception shaft (2nd shaft).

On completion, the machine is recovered from the second shaft and the pipes remain in the ground.

This means that Microtunneling and Pipe Jacking require a pipe of great strength capable of not only withstanding the normal installed loads from the surrounding ground, and traffic above, but also the high end load pressures imposed on the pipes by the jacking process.

The Jacking Pipes produced by Mi Polymer Concrete Pipes Sdn. Bhd. are the  ideal products for installation of pipes using the Trenchless Technology.

Mi Pipes in Action

  • lowering-600-dia-jacking-pipe
  • lowering-600-dia-pipe
  • jacking-pit-singapore
  • 048  250dia pipe being jacked
  • 048 300 dia pipe being jacked
  • 044 600 dia Jacking pipe being jacked through ground