A great deal of Santiago de Chile’s water network pipelines consist of reinforced concrete pressure pipes which have in some cases been in service for more than 50 years. Consequently, the poor condition of the network system causes water leakage of up to 40%. Due to length and location of a particular drinking water pipeline called “El Carmen – Cerro San Cristóbal”, Aguas Andinas who provide the water supply and sewerage services for most of Chile’s capital, looked for a technology that permitted rehabilitation of the 1,650m long route with minimal effect on the city’s everyday activities.
Aguas Andinas awarded the project to Primus Line installation partner Outer Ltda. They worked alongside another contractor who performed the digging for pits and by-passes to guarantee that water supply would not be interrupted. The liner with DN 350 as well as the 14 connectors DN 350 with DIN flanges PN 10 were produced and prepared at the Primus Line headquarters in Germany. The liner’s combined length of all sections was folded and coiled on three transport reels. Upon arrival, the liner was transferred to three smaller reels in order to be able to take it through the narrow road to Cerro San Cristóbal, a hill of 880 metres providing a perfect panoramic view of the city and characterising the townscape. Apart from a church and an amphitheatre, the eye catcher is a statue of Virgin Mary with a height of 22 metres.
Outer cooperated with Fluvius Chile SPA to ensure that two sections could be rehabilitated at once every time the line was taken out of service. In this way, the seven sections with lengths of 81, 232, 232, 351, 351, 88 and 315 metres could be finished within four months at the end of 2019 and at the beginning of 2020. Having cleaned the respective section, the Primus Liner was inserted with a speed of up to 10 metres per minute. After insertion and fitting the connectors, the pressure test was finally performed successfully.
The rehabilitation extended the main’s service life by more than 50 years.
All in all, the project was perfect team work by Outer, Fluvius and technical staff of Primus Line who supervised the job.
