Renovation of a brine pipeline with simultaneous bypass

The reusable Overland Piping system ensures the supply of the production plant during the rehabilitation work.

Overland Piping

Medium

Water

Application area

Industry

Line type

Transport line

Country

France

Region

Camargue

Situation

KEM ONE, one of Europe’s largest vinyl producers, has rehabilitated an eight-kilometre section of a transport pipeline for brine with a total length of 92 kilometres between its saline in Vauvert and the production plant in Fos-sur-Mer. In order to maintain the brine supply to the plant and thus also production, the transport pipeline was rehabilitated in eight sections of one kilometre each. To do so, a bypass, i. e. Primus Line^® Overland Piping is used for every rehabilitation section.

Special features

The one-kilometre bypass is used eight times in this project.

The concept to bypass the sections to be rehabilitated with Primus Line^® Overland Piping was validated by local authorities.

The start and end positions were modified for operation by installing intermediate sectioning valves to isolate sections of one kilometre each

Technical details

Material of host pipe

Steel

Diameter of host pipe

DN 300

Transported fluid

Brine

Operating pressure

16 bar

Total length

1,000 m bypass; 2 motorised reels with 500 m of liner each

Number of sections

8 sections

Number of bends

not applicable

Installation time

The entire project extended to over 18 months with pauses in summer due to the regional bushfire risk.

System used

Why Primus Line?

Environmental aspect

The transport line runs through a Natura 2000 protected area of the Camargue. Safe transport and protection of the environment are top priorities.

Financial aspects

The combination of rehabilitation with a trenchless system and maintenance of operation via bypass is considerably more cost-effective than the new laying of the transport pipeline in conventional, open construction.

Organisational aspects

The trenchless method substantially facilitated the authorisation process that every French operator has to pass for rehabilitation projects in the protected area.

„The rehabilitation of an eight-kilometre pipeline without, or at least with very little, construction work is indeed something new.“
Mathieu Bernardini, Pipelines Manager at KEM ONE

Read the article on the project in France