Popularising Trenchless Tech
Published on: Sunday, February 10, 2019
By: Kan Yaw Chong
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Civil engineers, like Cheng Kim Hua, laud it as an “amazing technology”. It only requires digging one starting jacking pit and a task receiving ending pit to emplace a small set of equipment and a pipeline stretching few hundred metres or even 1,000 metres installed underground.
This method bypasses digging up streets all over the city, which greatly reduces damage and, apparently, saves time and money, too. That is what we have heard locally over the recent months.
Trenchless technical advances created by experts is a rapidly growing sector worldwide in the construction and civil engineering industry – any time a better approach to underground pipe installation, repair or replacement, compared to the old days when extensive destructive trench digging and excavations for sewer installations, for example, caused huge disruptions and even safety concerns.
Actually, elsewhere in the world, the trenchless methods came on to the market for even residential houses 15 or more years ago to unclog or rehabilitate sewers etc, but many people are still not aware that this is an option.
Such method only came to my curious attention when Ir Jess Vun Wey Tyng alerted me about the one-day seminar themed, “Trenchless Technology with Emphasis on CCTV and Sewer Condition Assessment”, held at the Institution of Engineers Training Centre in Damai on Nov 19, 2018.
Trenchless Technology in Kota Kinabalu.
Expert local and international speakers
As the seminar theme suggests, Ir Cheng said: “The emphasis was to introduce the trenchless technology methods and, more importantly, to cover the basic introduction to Sewer Condition Assessment and Feasibility Inspection.
“This is why we invited speaker Briton Mr Ian Ramsay, an expert in sewers condition assessment which involves the use of CCTV and equipment to repair sewers,” Cheng said of Ramsay, a specialist with vast experience in the Cured-in-place Pipe (CIPP) rehabilitation method.
Ir Cheng himself also spoke on “aspects of pipe jacking projects and current development in various areas” while China educated civil and structural engineer Sun Min Min presented case studies on various projects involving long distance, rectangular box jacking, pipe roof and utility tunnel.
Peter Wong, Executive Director of Sabah-based Terra Environment Management Sdn Bhd, spoke of Case Studies of Sewer CCTV Projects’ which suggests that trenchless rehabilitation and repair market is also in place in Sabah.
No-dig installation of new pipeline at Karamunsing, Kota Kinabalu.
Institutional devotion to Trenchless Technology
Unknown to many of us, there is a Malaysian Society for Trenchless and Tunnelling Technology (MSTTT) which teamed up with the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia Sabah (IEM Sabah), the Technological Association of Malaysia (TAM) and Singapore Society for Trenchless Technology (SgSTT) to organise the seminar.
As the seminar’s mission statement has it, the event “will enable corporations and professionals to explore areas of mutual collaborations, technology, technology exchange and development in Trenchless Technology, especially in sewer and pipeline condition assessments and CCTV.
MSTTT makes no bones that it is the premier Malaysian Society devoted to the development and advancement of Tunnel and Trenchless areas, its Patron being the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti).
To make the event happen, Terra Environment Sdn Bhd and Hock Hai Construction Sdn Bhd sponsored it.
Experienced no-dig local pipeline rehab company
The surprise is Terra has been in business of pipe condition assessment and rehabilitation for 14 years, according to Wong.
“We are a specialist in providing pipeline assessment with all the robotics to do assessment, not only doing the assessment but what’s more important is what we do after that – the second part – which is rehabilitation.
“And then again we have full-fledged rehabilitation techniques and methods and what are the most cost-effective ways of remedying the pipelines because sewage pipelines in Sabah are generally more than 30 years old so they are already having problems. Terra, being a specialist here, look forward to work together with the private sector and Government.”
Wong said 14 years in the Trenchless Tech rehabilitation practice meant his company had accumulated a wealth of experience and a lot of resources.
“Our fleet to do the job is very complete, we have the respective equipment to do very small work from pipe size four inches up to even two metres, we are very instrumental and very passionate in what we do, we want to prove that a local company in Sabah is suitable for what is called for and look forward to providing specialist services and do it to international standards,” Wong said.
“At the end of the day, it’s about protecting the environment and sustainability. We don’t want sewage spilling over the manhole, goes into the drain and polluting the sea.”
Pipe bursting method to replace unsustainable pipelines.
Ramsay: Shocking water losses worldwide
When Daily Express asked the inevitable question, can Trenchless Technology detect hidden leaks in deeply buried pipes and thus invisible to the human eye, Ian Ramsay launched into some shocking statistics water losses across the world and justification for trenchless technology.
“What happens is if you go to places like the UK, the leakage is 24pc and we have been told by 2022, we must reduce that to 15pc and the way to do it is to detect the leaks and then come up with some technology to repair the leakages,” Ramsay noted.
“Some countries such as parts of India the leakage is 85pc. So basically from their reservoir to the house 85pc of the water is gone. That is a major issue. If you go to Africa, in places the loss is 90pc.
“That’s a complete wastage of water so technology that comes in trenchless and experts they have all the techniques to repair but you got to know where the leaks are,” Ramsay stressed. Japan and Singapore are less than 10pc each.
Sabah water losses: 42 per cent
“Sabah’s water leakage is 42pc or a loss of revenue to the tune of rm200 million per year and Selangor is worse,” noted Ir Cheng.
Trenchless tech: A ‘family’ of methods
From what we have heard and read, Trenchless Technology is not just one single type of subsurface construction work but is a family or variety of methods, materials and equipment that require few trenches or no continuous trenches. It must be noted that Trenchless Technology is used for not just the installation of new pipelines but has also become a celebrated technology for replacement and repair of existing underground infrastructure with minimum disruption to surface traffic, business and other activities.
Horizontal no-dig Auger boring to install new underground pipeline.
No dig methods to replace, repair old pipes
Trenchless rehabilitation construction methods include mechanical spot repair where damaged pipeline requires reinstatement of structural integrity or deals with a much larger issue of restoring existing buried pipes and structures without excavation, such as sliplining, thermoformed pipe lining, cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) by pulling a new liner into an existing pipe then apply heat and or pressure to force the liner to expand to fill the existing pipe; or replacing an old pipe considered no longer sustainable by pipe bursting, that is, using an internal bursting hammer head to which a new pipe is attached and winched forward by cable to replace an old pipe that is no longer sustainable.
Vun: Do something
“Awareness is already here. I think it is time to really do something for our people in Sabah. We need to do something, the past is past, there is no excuse to always talk about leakage of pipes and broken sewage if we don’t do anything,” Ir Vun said.
“We can find out the cause and then find out the cost, then we know how to repair rather than the amount of water loss and sewage spilling into the environment, killing things which is more costly than proper repair.”
No-dig methods for new pipe installation
Of course, when it comes to trenchless no dig installation of new pipe lines for cables, gas, water, the methods involve tunnelling, horizontal direction drilling, directional boring, pipe ramming, pipe jacking, horizontal auger boring which can be directed under rivers and busy highways.
“The advantages and benefits of Trenchless Technology to society is, One: environmental protection and two, more friendly to human beings. The second benefit is the use of underground space,” said Ir Trisha Sun Min Min.
Participants of the Trenchless Technology seminar.
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