St Athan is approximately 2 miles west of Cardiff International Airport, and the project involves the renewing of 1 km of pipeline and 11manholes.
The pipeline was subjected to infiltration from a nearby stream, which doubled the normal expected flows. The length of pipeline to be renewed was split between a small section of highway and environmentally sensitive rural areas.
Archaeological and Environmental support in the form of watching briefs was provided by Just Mammals, Creswell Associates and Monmouth Archaeology.
The task for the South East team with tier one pipe bursting contractor Knex Pipelines in assistance, was to engineer the best solution, in terms of design buildability, price, programme and environmental issues.
The design solution provided the South East Team with many challenges, there were several locations where the pipelines passed through heavily wooded areas and a section of pipeline was also adjacent to an ancient ruin
A pipe bursting option was undertaken
with the latest equipment available
namely the ground burst 400S, a new
pipe bursting machine. It is the first one
of its kind in the UK and in the first week
it proved highly successful with over
400m of pipeline replaced minimising
the environmental impact.
