Live Under Pressure Drilling
Along with Gas Purges and Live Squeeze Offs, Live Under Pressure Drilling has become somewhat of a specialty of the Gaspipes.co.uk team. In a similar manner to Live Squeeze Offs we provide this service to customers who cannot afford to have their Gas Supply interrupted. This process is often called Hot Tapping.
A recent customer in the South of England who was responsible for a School needed a new branch coming off their 14″ MDPE Gas Main. The customer took care of the ‘civils’ for us, ensuring a suitable trench was created. This is something we are happy to arrange if needs be. We typically require a day to be set aside for these works, but in reality, we can have this work done in as little as two hours even on pipework this thick.
We will typically take a team of two or three engineers to the site, with a drilling rig, portable/wheeled generator, a fusion generator, the saddle, and the appropriate tools and attachments. Usually, one vehicle is sufficient so our footprint is minimal and time on site is kept to a minimum.
Prep for the Under Pressure Drilling
On this particular occasion, the weather was kind to us, but this is not always the case. We always ensure we have specific types of wipes with us the clean the pipe before we can begin the first step. Once we are happy that the customer gas main is clean where we need to attach the saddle it can be strapped onto the gas main (see the main picture). The saddle is then fusion welded to the gas main. Different projects require different weld times, this particular one took 20 minutes.
Once the saddle has been successfully fusion welded to the main, we can then attach the valve. We lowered the valve into the trench, fastened it up, and then we can bring the drilling rig into the trench and begin drilling. Once we have extracted the ‘coupon’ we can be happy that the drill has been successful.
If like this customer, you need a branch coming off your gas main but cannot afford any disruption to service, email geoff@juservice.co.uk.