A Comparison of Technologies for a “One of a Kind” Pipeline: Condition Assessment of the 46” Transmission Main in Grand Rapids, MI

The North Transmission Main is generally located along Lake Michigan Drive (M-45) starting at the City of Grand Rapids Lake Michigan Filtration Plant (LMFP) near Grand Haven and ends at the Monroe Avenue storage tank, in Grand Rapids. When constructed, the initial use of the pipeline was to pump raw water from Lake Michigan to the original filtration plant located on Monroe Avenue for treatment. In 1963, when the new Lake Michigan Filtration Plant was constructed on the lakeshore, water from Lake Michigan was treated and pumped into Grand Rapids. The pipeline has several major crossings: the Grand River in two locations, Sand, Buck, and Indian Mill Creeks, two major highways (US-31 and US-131), and CSX railroad tracks as well as many heavy traffic, backcountry, residential, and urban area installations. The first step in the condition assessment process is data collection. The data collection effort began by reviewing existing reports and drawings, and performing field reconnaissance. Many historical documents and record drawings were obtained in the data collection phase. A data request was submitted to the city of Grand Rapids that included items such as the as-built drawings from the transmission main installation, maintenance and leak repair history, specifications or shop drawings, any soil testing, ground water depths, SCADA data, and any connections to the pipeline for other municipality feeds. Some of this information was able to be obtained (as-built drawings of the pipeline and SCADA data) but much of this information did not exist. The city was also able to provide a video of the pipe installation from 1939, a lay schedule, a copy of the chamber and equipment listing book (from both 1989 and 1994), as well as other various project reports. GIS shape files were obtained from the city as well which helped to create the base drawings for this project. Once the base drawings were set up, private utility companies were contacted in order to obtain location and utility maps. Surrounding municipalities were also contacted to locate their main water supply feeds. This information was incorporated into the drawings set. Since this is a “one-of-a-kind” pipeline and very little information was available, the original manufacturer of the pipe was contacted to attempt to gain as much information about it as possible. Price Brothers Company was not only the manufacturer of the pipe but also acted as the contractor for the installation in 1939. The local representative from the new owner of Price Brothers, U.S. Pipe, was contacted and they mentioned that they had no information on the pipeline at all but knew the pipeline well as they use this as an example pipeline all over the world. U.S. Pipe also recommended to reach out to Wright State University near Dayton, Ohio. The university holds all of the past records of the projects under the name Price Brothers. The university mentioned again they did not have much information but did have a short brochure of the pipeline.