Disaster relief with Primus Line’s flexible pipe

14 Jan 2025

Floods, landslides, tornados, wildfires – news of natural disasters seems to be on the rise. What to do when such a catastrophe damages the water infrastructure and you, as a network operator, have to restore the drinking water supply? Rely on Primus Line^®. The technology for trenchless rehabilitation of pressure pipes and for the temporary above-ground transport of fluids is a perfect solution for disaster relief.

For the construction of bypasses or emergency pipelines, Rädlinger Primus Line have two different products in their portfolio: Primus Line^® Rehab and Primus Line^® Overland Piping. While the latter is specifically designed for the temporary above-ground transport of fluids and reusable, the former is normally used for the rehabilitation of pressure pipelines. However, both can be applied for disaster relief, as their three-layer composition – the middle layer is made of Kevlar^® fabric –ensures flexibility, stability and safety in combination with the special connectors. For transmission lines, the system is available in diameters from DN 150 to DN 500, ideally suiting high operating pressures of up to 25 bar.

Whichever of the Primus Line^® products is used for disaster relief, they all share the following benefits for operators in case of structural failures after floods, landslides or earthquakes:

Primus Liners can be deployed in large lengths of up to 2,500 metres
No on-site welding
Fully flexible pipe that accommodates the internal operating pressure entirely by itself
Little space required to place the reels with the coiled liner; each reel holds up to 4,000 metres of liner depending on the diameter

The following examples show how Primus Line^® can be used to restore water supplies quickly and safely in a variety of situations.

Pipeline Rapid Response Kits (PRRK) for Fort Lauderdale in Florida

To ensure sustainable drinking water and firefighting capabilities in the event of a natural disaster, the City of Fort Lauderdale was looking for equipment that could quickly repair any breaks in its drinking water mains or sewer force mains. In 2018, the City of Fort Lauderdale embarked on a groundbreaking project. In coordination with the Rädlinger Primus Line engineering team and the city’s engineers, the concept of the rapid response kit was realised – a unique solution.

People in the southeastern United States are used to disaster situations, especially during hurricane season. In order to maintain the water supply in such cases, Rädlinger Primus Line delivered the first two “Pipeline Rapid Response Kits” (PRRK) to Fort Lauderdale in July 2019. The two 12-metre containers – one for drinking water and one for wastewater – hold two or three reels of rolled up Primus Liners and customised flange adapters of various sizes, at least two of each type.

These PRRKs are the fallback strategy for catastrophic situations such as hurricanes or floods, which is reassuring for those responsible for dealing with major pipeline breaks in Fort Lauderdale. The PRRKs allow the city’s emergency response crew to bypass pipe breaks in almost inaccessible locations. Customised adapters for different pipe sizes (DN 800 to DN 1500) and flexible DN 500 Primus Liners with a single length of 426 metres per reel serve as temporary bypasses. For example, three DN 500 Primus Liners can be combined to keep up the water supply of a broken DN 1200 pipe in emergency situations and can be run at pressures of up to 16 bar.

In some situations, opening the damaged line at two easily accessible points, rather than trying to repair it directly at the site of incident under extreme time pressure, may be the decisive factor.

The container with the FFRP equipment in Fort Lauderdale can easily be transported on a truck.

In order to be optimally prepared for such catastrophic situations with the PRRKs, the Fort Lauderdale emergency response crew spent two days training in the use and application of the Primus Liners and their adapters. Everything they need is packed in the two containers, which can be easily transported to the affected area. In addition, the entire kit can be reused for the next emergency situation.

Emergency water supply

After a storm and a historic flood in France

After the historic flooding of the river Le Boréon in the municipality of Saint-Martin-Vésubie in the south of France near Nice in 2020, the Primus Line^® system was used as an emergency installation. The enormous rise in the water level completely destroyed the main riverbed. Unimaginable quantities of water caused unprecedented human and material damage: supply networks were interrupted and a bridge collapsed. In order to restore the drinking water supply, the regional supplier had no choice but to install a temporary pipeline hanging freely across the new riverbed. The networks that were still operational were connected by laying the emergency pipeline along a road and a path to reintegrate the cut-off commune of Saint-Martin-Vésubie into the supply network. The regional utility chose a proven solution: the Primus Line^® system is suitable for long distances and was also the quickest to install.

With 1,340 metres to bypass and no lifting equipment on site, the Primus Liner’s light weight of 2.1 kilograms per metre allowed 610 metres per reel to be transported flat. A further 120 metres were delivered folded into a U-shape to be inserted into a PVC pipe suspended over the river at the former site of the collapsed bridge.

Rädlinger Primus Line prepared and shipped the material, i.e. the liner and specially developed connectors, within just 24 hours. The local installation partner executed the work on site. Perfect preparation was key in this case, as all the materials had to be flown in by helicopter. Combined with proactive planning, the quick adaptation to the local conditions and the helicopter support for the daily shuttle service, the bypass was installed and the drinking water supply restored in less than one week.

This project to restore the drinking water supply without heavy machinery or hoist units on site was a first in France.

Primus Line^® passed a suspended PVC pipe across the new river bed.

To residential buildings in Hong Kong

In September 2023, Hong Kong was hit by a century storm, which triggered a landslide in Yiu Tung Estate, Shau Kei Wan, on Hong Kong Island, resulting in the rupture of the main water supply pipes to five buildings. The Hong Kong Housing Department and the Water Supplies Department (WSD) immediately worked to restore water supply to three buildings by 8 September. To speed up the restoration of water supply to the remaining two buildings, the WSD installed an emergency pipeline with a Primus Line^® system DN 150 on the road surface to ensure uninterrupted water supply to the residents.

A Primus Line partner in Hong Kong played a key role with products in stock. The installation involved the use of Primus Line^® flexible pipe from the pump room to the isolated underground pump room. A coordinated effort restored the water supply to the remaining two buildings by 10 September. The temporary Primus Line^® installation was expected to be used for at least six months.

Primus Line^® to the rescue: Two Primus Liners supply buildings on Hong Kong Island with drinking and seawater after a landslide had ruptured the corresponding supply mains.

A month later, the WSD requested the parallel installation of temporary seawater connecting pipelines specifically for toilet flushing. This successful installation received high praise from both the water department and the building occupants, confirming the characteristics and quality of the Primus Line^® system.

Triple emergency bypass in Messina, Italy

In 2015, heavy rainfall and a subsequent landslide structurally damaged a DN 1000 steel pipe. This trunk main supplies the city of Messina with drinking water. When an initial repair attempt failed, the city’s 240,000 inhabitants were left without drinking water for more than ten days. The Italian government therefore declared a state of emergency and the military and civil defence took the lead. A local construction company was appointed to remedy this emergency situation quickly and efficiently. The trenchless specialist suggested using the Primus Line^® system as a temporary bypass to restore the drinking water supply.

On the day of the order, three sections of DN 300 Primus Liner with lengths of 350 metres each and six DN 300 Primus Line connectors with flanges left the Primus Line headquarters. Meanwhile, the local construction company built a site road on the back of a steep mountain to gain access to the damaged water main. A crawler excavator then transported the coiled Primus Line material to the construction site. Due to the height difference of 35 metres between the connection points, the liner had to accommodate an operating pressure of 3.5 to 7 bar. In addition, the last 80 metres to the lower connection point had to overcome a gradient of 50%. The three Primus Line connectors were attached to the host pipe using a specially designed fitting.

The installation of the three sections was completed in just 30 hours. This emergency bypass delivered about 660 litres of drinking water per second to Messina – equivalent to 57 million litres per day.

Disaster relief with Primus Line’s flexible pipe

Pipeline Rapid Response Kits (PRRK) for Fort Lauderdale in Florida

Emergency water supply

To residential buildings in Hong Kong

Triple emergency bypass in Messina, Italy

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Disaster relief with Primus Line’s flexible pipe

Pipeline Rapid Response Kits (PRRK) for Fort Lauderdale in Florida

Emergency water supply

To residential buildings in Hong Kong

Triple emergency bypass in Messina, Italy

More articles

Ten years of Primus Line ‘Down Under’: a bold decision has paid off

Memorandum of Understanding signed with WEIDA from Malaysia

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Highspeed for Monaco - Trenchless pipe rehabilitation and fibre optic installation with Primus Line^®