Lanes Group in a UK first for pioneering top hat repair

Lanes Group has become the first drainage specialist to carry out a pioneering no dig lateral junction repair on a wastewater network sewer in the UK.

The lateral junction patch repairs – commonly known as top hats – have been designed to prevent external water infiltration, and can be installed up to 30 metres from an entry manhole.

Lanes Group used the Pipe Doctor Lateral Repair System, developed by Source One Environmental, on a drainage rehabilitation project for Welsh Water. The top hat patches were installed at 14 lateral junctions along a 200 metre length of storm water sewer near Tregaron, in Ceredigion.
Damian Tranter, Area Development Manager for Lanes Group’s Cardiff depot, said:

“The system worked very well. It is bound to interest wastewater network service providers, because defective lateral junctions are a major cause of water infiltration, allowing many millions of gallons of ground water to get into drainage systems every year.

“This significantly increases the amount of water treated unnecessarily, at a huge cost. Periods of exceptional rainfall, as we’ve had this year, increase the risk of lateral junction cracking and water infiltrating.

“This is why we were keen to take a lead in offering the technology to our customers.”

Tony Hickman, Technical Sales Manager for Source One Environmental, said:

“We are very pleased that Lanes Group sees the great potential for the Pipe Doctor Lateral Repair System. It’s a cost-effective and permanent solution for defective lateral connections, for both domestic and commercial applications.

“We see it as being particularly attractive to wastewater network service providers, as they now have responsibility for maintaining private sewers and lateral drains. The number of defective lateral connections in the UK will run into the millions. Each one is potentially adding to the water treatment burden faced by water companies.”

The system can be used to use to repair connections, varying between 30 and 90 degrees, for main line pipes of 100mm to 700mm and lateral pipes of 100mm to 225mm.

Features include 50 year design life for the repair, 30 to 45 minute working time, a pre-measured resin bag to ensure correct mix, manual rather than robotic installation, flow-through packer technology (for sizes 200-800mm) and re-instatement of the lateral connection within three hours.

Engineers from Lanes Group’s Reline Division have completed Source One Environmental’s factory-based training to qualify as installers, so Lanes can offer the service to clients across the UK.