UKSTT Awards – Lanes secured a double win

The UK’s largest independent drainage specialist, Lanes Group Plc has scooped two prestigious industry awards at the 2012 United Kingdom Society for Trenchless Technology (UKSTT) dinner, with one of the accolades going to the group’s Castlebrae Drainage who are based in Glasgow, which won the renovation small category under £250,000.

The UKSTT’s annual awards promote excellence in trenchless technology and recognise the outstanding contributions made by organisations and individuals to its promotion, use and development.

Lanes Group received the award in recognition of the high-risk sewer repair work carried out on behalf of Scottish Water last year. The project involved the repair of a collapsed sewer which had disrupted a listed Masonic Hall in Glasgow for over five years and had already cost in the region of £50,000 in temporary repairs.

Having been the only contractor prepared to attempt the repair due to the severity of the damage, the Lanes’ team also unearthed a further problem in that the main sewer was also in a fragile condition with major deformation, breaks, fractures, heavy infiltration and one of the connections ready to collapse.

Following an emergency meeting, at which the Lane’s team expressed their confidence that they had the skill, knowledge and resources to resolve the situation, it was agreed the project should proceed one step at a time.

Stage 1 – The initial sewer was the first to be tackled with the team lifting the floor in the corridor gaining access to the node point and excavated trap to allow high pressure jetting, CCTV and to clear the collapsed pipe. After precision cleaning, monitoring and measuring the sewer, six metres of patch linings were installed allowing the sewer to flow while the subsided concrete floor was renewed. Finally all working areas of the building were deep cleaned.

Stage 2 – The focus then turned to the main sewer in which the flow rate was so high that the team suspected a further underlying issue. Thanks to some local knowledge obtained from a 90 year old local resident who was familiar with the building’s history, the team discovered an uncharted culvert which had backed up and leaked into the Scottish Water sewer causing major infiltration while, in addition, a burst water pipe was also leaking into the sewer.

Given the vagaries of the Scottish climate, the repair could not be rushed with every step having to be measured and calculated meticulously.  Long length patch linings with flow through packers were winched into place with a jet vac unit installed to maintain the back up flow.

The size of each patch had to be painstakingly calculated to accommodate the poor pipe condition and jagged invert, with the result being 12mm thick patches varying in length from 2.2 to 4 metres and the intruding connection carefully pushed back into place by the lining and then re-opened when the lining had cured.

Following five years of frustration the problem had finally been solved and for a fraction of the six-figure sum that had been estimated and with virtually no disruption to the local area.

This no-dig approach reduced impact on the local environment and gave the sewers a further 100-year lifespan. The repairs safeguarded the historic building from further structural damage and allowed people to make full use of its facilities again, without the need for an extensive and costly sewer diversion scheme.

Alastair Knox of Lanes Group Plc said: “This is a great achievement for Lanes, it demonstrates the determination and commitment of all the sewer renovation teams throughout the Lanes Group. To achieve these creditations is a significant vote of confidence in the work we are doing to improve our service to customers across the UK.

“Our innovative approach to the project, which in this particular case was akin to keyhole surgery,  enabled us to provide the client with a safe, reliable, quality service that delivered the overall project on programme well within budget, without any impact on the local area.”

The UKSTT’s annual awards promote excellence in trenchless technology and recognise the outstanding contributions made by organisations and individuals to its promotion, use and development.