Installation of Rising Main for Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
Felindre, West Glamorgan - June 2010 

Spencer’s highly-efficient SpiderPlow trenchless pipe and cable laying system was called into action again in June, when Morrison Construction asked the company to assist with a challenging rising main installation for Dwr Cymru Welsh Water.

The 6th largest water company in England and Wales, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water provides water supply and sewerage services to over three million people in Wales and adjoining areas, encompassing 1.2 million households and over 110,000 businesses.

Due to the modernisation of its waste treatment works at Felindre, West Glamorgan, Spencer was tasked to install a 180mm diameter HDPE pipe over a distance of 900 metres, at a depth of 1.5 metres. Whilst the job initially looked to be a straight-forward affair, further investigation revealed that the installation would require the pipe to pass through soft and hard ground, across roads and ditches, negotiate old mine workings and avoid other existing services such as gas mains and electricity cables.

Spencer initially visited the site to carry out a thorough assessment of what was involved. Then, having drawn up a detailed plan of action, a team was deployed to prepare the site in advance of work commencing. This included precisely stringing-out the pipe along the 900 metre run in order to speed-up the progress of the SpiderPlow as it traversed the installation route.

The pipe was then prepared before the process started, with each section carefully joined and welded. This posed an additional challenge, as the difficult nature of the terrain meant that, in some cases, the pipe had to be formed into curves in order to negotiate the bends and obstacles that were encountered.

Once installation began, it took the SpiderPlow just one day to lay 750 metres of pipe, only stopping at that distance in order to negotiate a road crossing, following which the remaining 150 metres was completed. Because of its ingenious method of feeding the pipe through a blade as it cuts a narrow slot in the ground, the SpiderPlow is capable of laying pipes or cables extremely accurately and efficiently.

Added to this, the process is better from an ecological perspective as well, as it causes minimal disruption to the surrounding land, plus the SpiderPlow closes the top of the installation channel as it goes. Therefore, very little reinstatement was required following the installation – another reason why laying pipes and cables with the SpiderPlow is quicker and less labour intensive than by using traditional open-trench methods.

“I must thank Spencer for the work carried out on our Felindre site”, said project manager for Morrison Construction Paul Taylor. “Using the Spiderplow system to lay the 180mm diameter coils saved us four weeks and tens of £1,000s, which is in itself a great incentive for anyone to employ this method of installation. Added to this, the reinstatement requirement was negligible, which represented an additional saving to us in terms of both time and money.”