Crossroads between Trenchless Construction and Contaminated Ground Conditions

Replacement of aging pipeline infrastructure is requiring construction along alignments that are highly contaminated and subject to costly and stringent regulatory controls. New installations where favorable routing is not available are also subject to similar constraints. Examples of where these installations can be found are: former industrial sites, reclaimed or filled urban lands, and rivers impacted by past industrial activity and navigation. This paper examines some adaptations to the trenchless construction processes that lead to risk minimization, thus enabling installation in these environmentally adverse ground conditions. To illustrate adaptability of trenchless methods, this paper presents a successful case study where pipe installation in highly-contaminated subsurface conditions was accomplished using trenchless methods, namely: horizontal directional drilling (HDD) launched from a former industrial site.