8 Water Pipe Replacement Drills in Sequence in Rural Wales
Water Pipe replacement in North Wales
In October 2017 Mole Engineering were invited to tender for a large-scale domestic water pipe installation in rural North Wales. The lead contractor, Gelli Engineering, were keen to directionally drill the project to minimise impact and disruption for residents. The overall client for the project was the National Assembly for Wales
The project, to install 63mm MDPE pipe to a row of eight terraced houses in Pontllyfni near Caernarfon, would supply replacement water main pipes to each property over a distance of around 14 meters per site. As current and ex social housing stock, the properties needed water pipe replacements to remove the risk of contamination from the old lead water pipes. Our quote for directional drilling was accepted and work began on site at the end of November.
Our skilled operatives worked with their Gelli Engineering counterparts to coordinate the excavation of the drill launch and receive pits and complete the installation of the replacement water pipes at each of the eight locations.
The ground conditions posed a number of challenges on some of the sites – recent wet weather and the rocky welsh countryside meant that the team had to work carefully and reactively, moving the drill trajectory where possible and digging out large obstacles where required.
All eight drills were completed in just over two weeks and our team were able to return each of the sites to normal. The residents were pleased to have avoided the need to trench through their front gardens and are now benefitting from improved utilities service.
We thank our partner Gelli Engineering for their cooperation throughout the project and look forward to working with them on a number of scheduled jobs in the coming months.
