Yorkshire Water has completed a £636,000 project at Airedale General Hospital that should not only ensure secure water supply to all buildings, but was also undertaken with minimal disruption thanks to a technology that does not require excavation of lengthy sections to gain pipework access.
The water company’s contract partner Balfour Beatty Utilities replaced and renewed the existing 1.4 km water main using techniques including sliplining technology, where a new, more robust plastic pipe is inserted inside the old water main, giving the pipe a more secure structure. The new inner pipe is then pulled though using a winching system. While the job took just four months, Yorkshire Water says removing the entire pipe and replacing it conventionally would have entailed substantial excavation, and taken “significantly longer”. The technology’s use meant access to crucial parts of the hospital, such as “accident and emergency”, was not disrupted.
