A live leak repair is made to an underground 150mm cement coated steel pipe on a water network in Mexico after excavation and the removal of the outer coating revealed a 80mm split in a section of the line which had no means of isolation.

Case Study Overview

Site Water supply network
Location Mexico
Pipe Type 150mm cement coated steel pipe
Pressure 3 bar
Repair Type Live leak repair
Products Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape, SylWrap Pipe Repair Bandage

Pipe Defect

A potential leak was identified on a section of the water supply network running beneath a street. Excavation revealed a 150mm cement coated steel pipe with a 15mm wide crack across the diameter of its coating.

There was no sign of any leakage through the crack. To inspect the condition of the steel pipe inside, engineers removed the cement using a hammer and chisel.

As the coating was chipped away, water began spraying from a 80mm long split in the steel pipe. By the time the cement coating had been fully removed from the leaking section, enough water had escaped into the excavation hole to submerge half the pipe.

With no means of isolating the section of the water network the pipe served without causing severe disruption to supplies, the only option was to make a live leak repair.

SylWrap Solution

The specialist company who detected the leak and excavated the pipe equips all its engineers with a SylWrap Pipe Repair Contractor Case, meaning everything needed to seal the pipe was already on-site.

A Contractor Case contains enough products to make up to six permanent live leak repairs to pipes of all materials and types. All the products in the Case are WRAS Approved, meaning they are certified as safe to use on public water networks.

An engineer using a bucket removed enough water from the hole so that a repair could take place. Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape was wrapped up the entire length of the split, with multiple Tapes layered on top of each other.

Each new Wrap & Seal fused to the Rapes previously applied to the pipe, building up the pressure resistance of the repair to the required 3 bar. The application of Wrap & Seal stopped when the leak had been fully arrested.

A SylWrap Pipe Repair Bandage was then wrapped and smoothed over the pipe. Within minutes, SylWrap set rock hard to reinforce the repair with an impact resistant outer shell, providing an effective replacement for the removed cement coating.

Outcome

The repair was completed in under one hour, after which the cement coated pipe was reburied. The application had been carried out with no noticeable interruption for those whose water was supplied by the network.

Having all the products ready and available in a Contractor Case made a significant difference to response time and how quickly the leak could be sealed, reducing the amount of water lost.

Follow Up

The water company responsible for the network were impressed by the speed with which the leak had been identified and then repaired.

They have since looked to extend their partnership with the engineering company, thanks to the role played in the application by the Contractor Case.

Products Used

Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape
Self-fusing silicone repair tape which fuses to form a solid rubber band to seal live leaks

SylWrap Pipe Repair Bandage
Water-activated wrap sets rock hard to provide a protective shell around pipework

Pipe Repair Contractor Case
Case containing enough Wrap & Seal and SylWrap to make up to six live leak pipe repairs

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