Skip to main content

Tracto-Technik’s the wa-ter go

Sub-contractors used equipment from Tracto- Technik to renew two sections of an old grey cast iron water transport pipe covering a total of 200m as part of a complete street restructure in Linz, Austria. In order to prevent any traffic chaos and potential loss of trade for shopkeepers on busy Haidfield Street, while, at the same time, ensuring that the pipe cross-section ND 400 and the hydraulic pipe remained intact, Linz AG Water Department sub-contractors Swietelski- Faber (SF) decided to apply the static
October 31, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Sub-contractors used equipment from Tracto- Technik to renew two sections of an old grey cast iron water transport pipe covering a total of 200m as part of a complete street restructure in Linz, Austria.

In order to prevent any traffic chaos and potential loss of trade for shopkeepers on busy Haidfield Street, while, at the same time, ensuring that the pipe cross-section ND 400 and the hydraulic pipe remained intact, Linz AG Water Department sub-contractors Swietelski- Faber (SF) decided to apply the static pipe bursting method to renew the pipes in three days over a recent weekend.

Using this method, pipes with the same size or larger pipes can be renewed in the same bore path. It is unusual to replace an old cast iron pipe with a new cast iron pipe of the same nominal size with the trenchless method, but it is possible and common with the pipe bursting method without any restrictions.

In order to burst the old cast iron pipe, to expand the bore channel and at the same time pull in the Duktus manufactured ductile iron pipe ND 400, obtaining a machine technology with tensile strengths was said to be crucial to SF’s chances of meeting its tight working deadline. A further requirement was the task of measuring and documenting the tensile strengths, as the pipes were only allowed to be strained up to 650 kN.

As a result, SF used 2738 Tracto-Technik’s (TT) GRUNDOBURST Type 1900 G with 1900 kN tensile strength pipe bursting system and the tensile strength measuring device GRUNDOLOG.

The measured and documented tensile forces were 500 kN, well below the permitted strains for the connection of the new pipe.

TT said the “exemplary co-operation” of all the companies involved in the project enabled the on-time completion of what was said to be one of the largest static pipe bursting method jobsite works ever undertaken in Austria.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • New legislation for fuel specifications, emissions
    February 29, 2012
    New legislation has changed fuel specifications as well as engine emission requirements, writes Claire Symes. The latest Stage IIIB engines mean that on-site maintenance routines for newer equipment need to be changed. And at the same time, new fuel specifications also mean changes to management of fuel for all machines. The European standard for gas oil, EN590, changed at the start of the year in order to comply with the Renewable Energy and Fuel Quality Directives. This means fuels now must be low sulphur
  • Tunnelling conference and competition
    September 23, 2019
    The annual tunnelling conference and competition is due to take place in Miami from the 18th-20th November in Miami, Florida. The competition features eight categories and aims to identify the most important ongoing underground works and technologies that help cities change and enable habits and ways of life to evolve in order to build smart and sustainable urba
  • Environmentally friendly demolition of famous US Bay Bridge to take years
    March 18, 2013
    While the new eastern span of northern California’s Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland will open to traffic this September, the task of taking down the old eastern bridge span roadway is likely to take years. Speaking to a local TV station Brad McCrea, regulatory director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the state agency that oversees protection of the Bay Area, said: “Taking the old Bay Bridge [eastern span roadway] down is as practically as big a project as putting the new one
  • Asphalt milling and paving with 3D control
    February 16, 2012
    Milling and paving repair operations for airport runways require particularly high tolerances, an obvious market for 3D control solutions writes Mike Woof. Airport runways require some of the most accurate quality standards and tightest tolerances of any asphalt or concrete surface. This is one area where the high precision capabilities of 3D systems offer clear advantages.