Sewer/Water
Market To Remain Active, Say Contractors/Utilities
October 1999
By Jeff Griffin, Senior Editor
Contractors’ Perspective
The first years of the 21st Century
should be a good time to be in the water and sanitary
sewer construction and rehabilitation business.
Although it isn’t likely that the
U.S. economy can continue to grow at the pace of the
’90s, there is no reason to anticipate a deep
recession. Construction is expected to remain strong.
And every new housing development, retail complex,
corporate facility and manufacturing plan must be
connected to water and sewer services.
In addition, the job of maintaining
and rehabilitating the nation’s aging water and
sewer lines comprise a vast amount of work.
For most new construction,
traditional open-cut methods remain the most
cost-effective way to install pipe across undeveloped
land. Trenchless construction is best suited for
rehabilitating and replacing old pipelines in areas
where excavation is impractical. However, excavation
still is used to install much of the water and sewer
pipe being replaced.
Even if economic conditions
significantly slow new construction, rehabilitating
and upgrading America’s deteriorating water and
sewer infrastructure will be an ongoing task for
years.
Mark Harris is vice president of
Madsen/Barr - Philip Utilities Management Corp., an
AZURIX company, and is responsible for sewer
rehabilitation projects in several states. Citing
statistics compiled by industry associations and the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Harris says it
will take years and many billions of dollars just to
bring the nation’s existing water and sewer systems
up to acceptable standards.
And those estimates are based on
statistics already out of date; workloads and costs
increase daily. “Every day,” says Harris, “add a
couple more million dollars for another line that’s
failed.”
Madsen/Barr - Philip uses trenchless
rehabilitation methods extensively and holds licenses
to install deformed-reformed and cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP)
lining systems in several southeastern states.
“We average about 30,000 feet of
fold-and-form and CIPP lining a month,” says Harris.
“And in the course of our operations, we’ve
installed more than 1.5 million feet of U-Liner
deformed-reformed pipe.”
Much of the work is in Florida. “A
lot of pipe in Florida,” says Harris, “has been in
the ground since the 1960s when the building boom
arrived in the state. Construction practices weren’t
always the best back then. Pipe has been in the ground
30 years or more and both pipe and joints are
failing.”
Infiltration is the force driving a
major portion of the rehabilitation market. “When it
rains,” says Harris, “infiltration causes back up
in lines, sewage is dumped into rivers, environmental
organizations get involved, and the next thing you
know the EPA issues a consent decree giving cities a
specified period of time to tighten up their
systems.”
Demands for rehabilitation generates
work and jobs in construction and in the service
industries related to construction.
How much of the needed work is done
in the next 10 to 20 years, says Harris, depends on
the amount of money available.
“The issues,” he says, “ are
who will pay for the work, and where funds will come
from. The federal government will have to be
involved.”
Consistent growth
J. Fletcher Creamer and Son Inc.,
Hackensack, NJ, does water and sewer construction on a
national basis. “Trends over the last few years have
been consistent,” says vice president Dale Creamer.
“Projecting three to five years ahead, there is
plenty of work both in water and sewer construction.
Rehabilitation work is very consistent, and we expect
continued growth in this area.”
The company’s current
rehabilitation projects total between $25 million and
$30 million; new construction adds another $10 million
to $15 million of work.
Most construction, says Creamer, is
open cut with trenchless procedures limited to cement
mortar lining and internal grouting.
“We have stepped back from
trenchless,” says Creamer. “We have done fold-and
form and CIPP lining, but chose not to renew our
license for the product we were using. The technology
is changing so quickly, we are evaluating the market
and trenchless methods and certainly have the option
to get back into trenchless construction.”
Mladen Buntich Construction Co.,
Inc., Sunland, CA, is involved in many high-profile
rehabilitation projects. “There is a lot of water
and sewer work in the Los Angeles area,” says Lee
Roesner, PE, Mladen Buntich field engineer. “The
city itself is 100 years old now. Many pipes were put
in the ground in the 1920s and ’30s. They are at the
end of their life, so there is a lot of rehabilitation
- a lot of lining of old pipe and a lot of
replacement.”
But there is new construction, too.
“LA itself is just about developed,” says Roesner.
“We’re between the mountains and the ocean, so new
development is to the north and the south.”
Competition
But for all the work in Southern
California, Roesner describes the market as tight.
“There is a lot of competition,” he says, “and I
don’t believe prices have risen to cover all the
regulatory requirements contractors face.”
The majority of Mladen Buntich’s
work involves sewer rehabilitation, frequently by
sliplining, a trenchless method that does not require
extensive excavation or flow diversions.
The extent of deterioration of the
underground infrastructure is in part due to lack of
attention, Roesner believes.
“In my opinion,” he explains,
“not enough has been spent in the last 30 years on
underground pipelines. People see the conditions of
roads and bridges, and they demand repairs. But you
don’t see underground problems, and the public
doesn’t demand action until their toilets don’t
flush.”
Roesner expects the number of
underground failures to increase in the next 15 years.
“The City of Malibu recently was without water for
four or five days after a major water line failure.
I’m afraid we’re going to see many more like this
in the future.”
Roesner also emphasizes the amount
of work depends on available funds. “Everything is
driven by the economy,” he says. “When the economy
is good, the work continues.”
End Users’ Perspective
The public agencies that own and
operate America’s water and sanitary sewer systems
face multiple challenges at the beginning of the new
millennium.
A strong economy continues to
stimulate growth in much of the country, requiring the
extension of water and sewer services to new homes,
businesses and industrial plants.
But all too often this growth
strains the capabilities of treatment plants and
underground pipelines already operating beyond their
capacities. To complicate matters, much of the
nation’s water and sewer infrastructure is
crumbling, and maintenance crews are hard pressed to
keep them patched together and functioning.
As a result, major construction and
rehabilitation projects are under way across the
country. Work already scheduled will keep crews busy
well into the 2000s, and industry observers say the
only thing likely to slow work is an economic
downturn.
Many utility departments are
encouraging more frequent use of various trenchless
methods, yet a large percentage of construction
continues to be accomplished by traditional open-cut
methods.
Sacramento
In California’s capital, work is
evenly split between new construction and
rehabilitation, says Gary Reents, engineering services
manager for the Sacramento Department of Utilities.
“We’ve had a lot of growth
here,” says Reents, “and one new area has just
opened up for development. We also have extensive
sewer rehabilitation and a lot of rebuilds to do.”
New construction, Reents says, is
all open cut, except for segments such as creek or
river crossings that must be bored or tunneled. One
project likely will include microtunneling under the
American River. Most rehabilitation and rebuild
projects also are open cut.
“We expected to do more trenchless
construction,” says Reents, “but it hasn’t
happened. We’ve done some fold-and-form and
cured-in-place lining. Unless specifications call for
a trenchless procedure, contractors aren’t using
them. I can’t think of a single instance where
horizontal directional drilling has been used.”
The instances in which the city does
specify trenchless construction, says Reents, are jobs
in older parts of the city where fences would have to
be taken down and landscaping damaged. In street
easements, dig-and-replace is the standard procedure.
“The feeling here is that
trenchless construction isn’t as cost effective as
open cut,” Reents explains.
Is that point of view expected to
change? “You would think so,” answers Reents.
“But several years ago we thought we would begin to
do more trenchless work, and it hasn’t happened.”
Interestingly, Sacramento is one
city that charges contractors a fee for cutting
streets. Money is used to maintain street sections
weakened by excavation. There was speculation when the
city enacted the fee ordinance that it would encourage
trenchless construction. “So far,” says Reents,
“it hasn’t done that.”
Florida Panhandle
Across the country in the Florida
panhandle, the Pensacola area has a large workload of
both new construction and rehabilitation.
“There is a lot of growth in our
area requiring upgrades and extensions to water and
sewer systems,” says Bill Johnson, director of
engineering for Escambia County Utilities Authority.
“We are relocating a lot of utilities because of
road construction. We’re also going to be spending
more money on inflow and infiltration in the next two
years, and that may continue to increase.”
Open-cut water and sewer
construction continues to be used for much of the work
in Escambia County, but the impact of trenchless
procedures is increasing.
“We use directional drilling more
and more, especially around creeks and bayous,” says
Johnson. “On many jobs, contractors are going to
directional drilling instead of jack-and-bore
methods.”
Johnson says directional drilling
isn’t used often in residential areas, but that it
is being considered as an option in established
neighborhoods. To avoid excavation, pipe bursting now
is used to replace mains running through back yards of
established residential areas.
“These old pipes have been in the
ground 30 or 40 years,” Johnson says. “Trees grow
and residents build sheds and put in landscaping.
Excavating through 20 back yards in such areas just
doesn’t make sense.”
To date, lining systems have seen
little use in the area. Many of the old pipes have
breaks and other problems which makes lining
unsuitable, says Johnson.
He believes the use of trenchless
methods in Escambia County is going to increase,
because trenchless appears to be becoming more
competitive with open cut for more applications.
Knoxville
In Tennessee, the Knoxville Utility
Board’s primary concern is maintaining and
rehabilitating the city’s water and sewer systems.
“We have no new extensions under
way for either sewer or water,” says sanitary sewer
project engineer Julie Childers. “We are surrounded
by other utility districts, and that is where most
growth is occurring.”
Approximately half the sewer
rehabilitation projects are accomplished by open cut,
the other half with trenchless methods, Childers says.
Of the trenchless construction, about half is pipe
bursting, the other half CIPP liner.
“We do have one big sliplining
project where existing pipe is from 30 to 36 inches in
diameter,” adds Childers. “We do some directional
drilling. We’ve done river crossings, and we have
two contractors using directional drilling to install
laterals.”
On the water side, most work is for
rehabilitation and some system upgrades, says project
engineer Mark Rauhuff.
“We are evaluating the feasibility
of removing one small treatment plant from service,”
says Rauhuff, “and if that happens we will have one
large new 24-inch main to install.”
He adds that open-cut construction
is widely used, but directional drilling makes river
crossings and bores under some roads.
“We have a lot of old galvanized
mains,” says Rauhuff, “and we plan to use
directional drilling to put in new 2-inch mains. Often
the decision is a customer issue; people don’t want
their property damaged.”
In addition to water and sewer, KUB
also operates the city’s gas and electric services.
Some construction is done by KUB crews, other work is
bid out.
“We split our crews by overhead
and underground,” says Rauhuff. “We’re in the
process now of defining what we can do best and what
work would be better to bid out to contractors.”
Houston
Houston has massive amounts of new
water and sewer construction and rehabilitation.
Project budgets for the year 2000 total more than $130
million in each category, says Gary Oradat, deputy
director, public utilities division, department of
public works and engineering, City of Houston.
“There is a lot of growth in
Houston, so there is a large amount of new
construction,” Oradat says. “The waste water
budget includes pipe maintenance, renewal, and
replacement, both small- and large-diameter rehab, and
pump station and plant work. For water, renewal
projects basically are replacing undersized mains or
mains that have histories of maintenance problems.”
The water department budget includes
funds for larger mains in the city’s surface
distribution program, storage tanks, water wells and
plant work.
“We do open cut for new construction,” says Oradat.
“It appears, because of the line diameters that we
will focus on in the next few years, there will be
less sliplining. With 8-inch lines, we can’t afford
the slight reduction in capacity that sliplining would
bring. Larger pipes will be removed and replaced by
excavation or replaced with larger size lines by pipe
bursting.”
Oradat says the city hopes to use
fold and form and CIPP linings whenever possible.
Horizontal directional drilling is not a factor in the
department’s operations.
“We’ll continue to use
trenchless methods at about the same levels as in the
past,” says Oradat. “Trenchless construction is
very viable.”
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