A 36-in. Ductile Iron Pipe Horizontal Direction Drill Creek Crossing—Project Overview

Installing 36-in. Ductile Iron Pipe (DIP) by Horizontal Directional Drill (HDD) does not happen every day. Through a Design–Build (DB) project, Dewberry completed the relocation of 13,500 LF of large diameter pipe, including 6,800 LF of 36-in. DIP, of which 1,100 LF was installed by HDD under Bullfrog Creek. Project also included multiple 14–30-in. casings installed by Jack & Bore (J&B) under tunnels and major DOT roads. This paper provides an overview of the project design and construction with a focus on lessons learned during the 36-in. DIP installation by HDD. The challenges included the inability to shut down the existing system; initially dealing with a pipe believed to be pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP); staging and pre-reaming for the installation of the 36-in. DIP across Bullfrog Creek; determining the adequacy of flow and pressure to pig the 6,800 LF of pipe; and other construction sequencing challenges.