Access T'hatches

[runnach]

WPS required for this Paul, I'm curious if you have to butter up prior to fitting/welding saddles, I'm assuming 54" main is old??

Quality bit of work all round tho, try to take a few while installing.

BTW, hot tie ins not viable for water, done often now offshore??

Cheers.........

 

[runnach]

Ah sorry, reread your first post, inspection hatch, no need for hot tie in, even if possible!

 

[Welderpaul]

WPS required for this Paul, I'm curious if you have to butter up prior to fitting/welding saddles, I'm assuming 54" main is old??

Quality bit of work all round tho, try to take a few while installing.

BTW, hot tie ins not viable for water, done often now offshore??

Cheers.........

The main is fairly new - laid in the last ten years they tell me - their records are crap - amazing for an important trunk main like that. It took them 3 days to find it with a 20T excavator - they had to expose it so we could take some templates from the top of the main - Each saddle varies wildley - there are two pipes crossing each other - two hatches per pipe. WPS and all details provided by the utility company, the full surface of the main to be ground back to clean steel - inspected before we can weld. There are 3" stub pipes through the centre of the blanks with a valve on each. Once each saddle is welded on, it is pressure tested before cutting out the pipe. The valves would then be used for dosing/testing in later life.

 

[runnach]

3 days to find good grief bet an amateur treasurer hunter could have found it nae bother!!

Reads an interesting job from start to finish, nice one to add to company CV and webpage.......

Cheers for info

 

[madkayaker]

it would have been bad if 30 second down they find the pipe very hard with the bucket. I did a job putting strain gages on a pipe line that was to be blown up after filling with gas!

 

[bawjaws]

some precision work there paul bet it beats gates

 

[snowcat]

Its a Genset road towable effort. Kicks out a load of crap - so taking the long leads as well - keep it well away from the hole! Big long remote to save the lackys legs! up 10, up 10, down 10...

back to the proper welding then paul

 

[madkayaker]

just keep drill boxes out of the way!

 

[Welderpaul]

back to the proper welding then paul

Yeah, thats more like it - no more point and squirt!

 

[Welderpaul]

twack it

Cross between **** it and tack it!

 

[Welderpaul]

2 out of 4 fitted! Holes full of 1m+ of water to drain out and clear the slop
Quite a good fit really - a bit of dogging down to be done to the one that sits on the pipe that was a bit oval shaped.
Another two to do tomorrow, then pressure test and fit the blanks

 

[wyn]

Looking good, Paul.

Brilliant thing the dog and wedge. Use it a fair bit in work.

 

[runnach]

Yep, certainly a bit different from run o the mill type site work. Echoing Wyn, looking good, curious as to why there is a 100mm brown waste pipe with grill way down there??

 

[simon718]

some construction that mate! bet the grinders don't last long in those conditions

 

[Welderpaul]

When we're done there will be a big brick chamber built around them for future access. The idea is that the gulleys provide somewhere for any water to go from the concrete slab that will be in the bottom. The thing is its solid clay and the gulleys run 1m to a soakaway. Needless to say they are absolutley useless. The machine driver obviously thought so as well as he ripped the second one out in as many minutes clearing out the bottoms of the excavations.

Working in those conditions tends to kill grinders fairly quickly - the muck gets in the air vents and gets chewed up inside everything. Not as bad as the remains of the bitumen coating when it is power wire brushed off tho - it turns molton and stringy and chokes grinders up in seconds.

 

[drjim]

Mate of mine works in sewage and has a great story of not properly measuring a sewage pipe somewhere in yorkshire. They were chopping into a 60ish cm sewage main to divert to a new sewage plant. They needed to fit some T junction type joints ready for the fixing.

Basically matey went on a ****ty day, hole flooded etc. Handed pipe measuring calipers to "Dave" who knew what to do, wrote down the number and ordered the kit. Day comes - just before 2 week Xmas layoff, pipe chopped - fittings too big.

They wrapped the pipe ends in something gaffer tape like to space it out, and bolted it all together. when they came back after 2 weeks there was a huge sewage filled blister/balloon but it had held together.

Raw sewage at 15 bar apparently. He sort of described the possible consequences as a 30 foot high geyser of ****, so was very happy it held together!

Pipes sound like fun!

Jim

 

[bawjaws]

i wish i could weld with a stick like that

 

[simon718]

i wish i could weld with a stick like that

get practising then

 

[madkayaker]

looks good paul but where's the gate going?

 

[Hitch]

Yep, certainly a bit different from run o the mill type site work. Echoing Wyn, looking good, curious as to why there is a 100mm brown waste pipe with grill way down there??

Groundworkers got their levels wrong i expect

Nice little number that Paul, more of the same in the pipe line?