The Problem
The Weirton Area Water Board provides service to approximately 9,500 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in and around the City of Weirton. The WAWB’s water treatment plant and water storage/distribution system has been in service for more than 60 years, however, and was experiencing serious issues that affected the Board’s service capacity. The pipes moving water for the WAWB were 18” steel pipes that are buried up to 12 feet deep, making line repairs and replacements extremely difficult. After experiencing significant water outages, the WAWB determined their line was no longer in usable condition.
The Solution
With pipes buried so deeply in the ground and in such poor condition, Thrasher had to come up with an innovative solution to the problem. Rather than dig up such an extreme amount of pipe to replace the entire 18” transmission main line, the Thrasher team found an alternative: insert a new pipe within the old pipe. There were 17,000 linear feet of 14” PVC waterline sliplined through the 18” waterline. This solution had the same capacity as the existing 18” waterline, with a more efficient, long-term solution.
The project also included replacing the existing high-service pump and replacing approximately 9,000 water meters with new radio read meters and an automatic meter reading system.
The work on this project earned Thrasher an honorable mention from the American Council of Engineering Companies in 2018’s Engineering Excellence Awards.
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