Urgent Need Drives Record Completion of 42-Inch Pipeline in Flint, Michigan

In order for the city of Flint, Michigan, to receive high-quality water, the Genesee County Drain Commission (GCDC) leased a nine mile 72-inch pipeline to Flint, for the price of $1 per month. This was done in recognition of Flint’s water emergency, to immediately bring clean water to its residents. The situation created an urgent demand for a new 42-inch water line, since GCDC was no longer able to utilize the existing 72-inch pipe to carry finished water from GCDC’s new treatment plant to their distribution system. The plant had a planned operation date of October 2017, and the need to build the 42-inch line was not known until February 2017. GCDC designed, permitted, and constructed the nine miles of pipeline in just seven months. The 42-inch pipeline was comprised of 39,000 feet of spiral-welded steel pipe shipped to Burton, Michigan. From design to installation, the project timeline was seven months. This aggressive schedule led to some out-of-the box thinking to allow alignment design, pipe fabrication design, and procurement of pipe materials to take place on parallel schedules. This paper outlines the time constraints established for the project, the solutions developed and implemented to complete the design, manufacturing, delivery, and installation in seven months. Emphasis is made on the material aspect of the project and how the pipe bill of material was designed and managed to allow for fabrication to be concurrent with the design of the alignment. Additionally, the bill of material needed to provide flexibility in the field. The installer was required to have flexibility in laying sequence, quantity of installation crews, and starting locations. The project was successful in meeting all the time constraints. Coordination and communication early in the design and manufacturing process were key elements. The pipe bill of material accommodated all the contingencies that were anticipated such as: change in laying direction, additional shipping points, and change in installation start points.