News and Articles
Dec 15, 2008
News
ISTT will host the 2009 Trenchless Middle East
Westrade Group in partnership with the International Society for Trenchless Technology (ISTT) will host the 2009 Trenchless Middle East at the Jumeirah Beach Conference & Exhibition Centre, Dubai, UAE.
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Dec 12, 2008
News
Robbins 19-inch Cutters Power through Alps
On November 6, 2008 a Robbins machine successfully negotiated high cover and potential squeezing ground. The 9.7 m (31.8 ft) diameter Main Beam machine completed the 2.4 km (1.5 mi) long Ceneri adit tunnel on schedule after ten months of boring.
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Dec 11, 2008
News
S & P Consult, Participation in German-Turkish Wastewater Symposium in Istanbul
The German-Turkish Wastewater Symposium and the corresponding cooperation forum "Treatment of municipal and industrial Wastewater", with over 100 participants, took place on the 22nd and 23rd October 2008 in Istanbul. The event was organised by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Cologne (IHK Köln) and the Research Institute for Water and Waste Management (FiW Aachen) and supported / presented by the Turkish & German Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
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Dec 10, 2008
Article
Replacement of valves in the gate valve house of the Schwammenauel dam and hydropower station
The Rur dam with the Schwammenauel hydropower station is located in the Nordeifel mountains near the city of Heimbach. With its storage volume of 203 million m³ it is one of Germany's largest dams. After more than 65 years of service, the valves at the bottom outlet had to be replaced. The old plunger valves were replaced by hollow jet valves with a much higher capacity.
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Dec 09, 2008
News
Wavin Group Trading Update
Wavin N.V., leading supplier of plastic pipe systems and solutions in Europe, today provides an update of its current trading performance.Construction markets under significant pressure 2008 revenue short of EUR 1.6 billion, approx. 2% below level of last year Ebitda margin around 10%, 3% below last year’s level Total restructuring charges 2008 around EUR 12 million Net debt expected to be below EUR 550 million
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Dec 08, 2008
News
Robert Walker Joins Underground Solutions, Inc. As Vice President Engineering Applications
Poway, CA - Underground Solutions, Inc. announced that Robert Walker, P.E. has joined the company as a Vice President Engineering Applications. Mr. Walker was formerly Executive Director of the Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association.
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Dec 05, 2008
News
New orders worth more than EUR 455 m in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Thailand: 3.7 kilometer long drainage tunnels in Hong Kong
HOCHTIEF - via its subsidiary Leighton and its participating interests - has secured new orders in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Thailand which are together worth more than EUR 455 million. The Al Habtoor Leighton Group is a member of a joint venture which has been contracted to design and construct the campus of the new Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.
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Dec 03, 2008
News
Petrology On-Line with the world's first 40t all-terrain Grundowinch
As a leading Trenchless Technology equipment specialist manufacturer and supply partner to many major UK Contracting, Civil and Utility organisations, TT-UK were the ideal choice when Petrology needed a very special winch unit for their unique subsea Swagelining operations carried out world wide.
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Dec 01, 2008
News
New web map helps customers keep track of planned work
As Thames Water plans the largest investment ever by a UK water company, customers can now find out how they are likely to benefit.
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Nov 28, 2008
News
SABIC Innovative Plastics Expands Investment in Fluid Engineering Center to Develop High-Performance Materials for Water Systems
Growing concerns about health and safety risks and increasingly high costs of metal in fluid handling systems are prompting the use of plastic pipes, faucets, valves, boilers and other components. Plastics offer the potential to build cleaner, safer and more cost-effective water systems; however, each material must undergo extensive testing. To provide the most rigorous and sophisticated evaluation of its engineering thermoplastics, SABIC Innovative Plastics has invested in enhancements to its Fluid Engineering Center of Excellence in Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands. The research center, which opened in 2005, now gives global customers access to a wider array of testing equipment, more extensive and longer-term tests, and expanded scientific resources to help them develop highly advanced, innovative fluid handling solutions.
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Nov 26, 2008
News
VINCI wins a tunnel construction contract in the United States
VINCI Construction Grands Projets, leader (65 %) of a joint-venture with the American contractor Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc. (35 %), recently signed a contract with the City of Detroit (Detroit Water and Sewerage Department) to build a tunnel for carrying treated wastewater from the city for discharge into the Detroit river.
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Nov 24, 2008
News
Three Robbins EPBMs to Improve Mexico City Drainage
Mexico City, founded on what was once an island in the middle of a lake, is sinking at the rate of 10 cm (4 in) per year. Over the last 30 years, the city’s critical drainage lines have lost their slope, resulting in a 40% reduction in overall capacity. To remedy the problem the city is moving forward on the 62 km (39 mi) long Emisor Oriente sewer tunnel to drain additional water from the Valley of Mexico. The tunnel will be constructed using a total of six TBMs, including three 8.93 m (29.3 ft) diameter Robbins EPBMs, to be shipped to the jobsite by the end of 2009.
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Nov 21, 2008
Article
An Innovative New Technology for Trenchless Rehabilitation of High Pressure Gas/Liquid Transmission Pipelines
Smart Pipe® is a recently completed, innovative, new technology that has the potential for significantly reducing the cost, public inconvenience, and environmental threats associated with rectifying damaged and degraded high pressure pipelines. As new pipe or as a tight fitting liner, it is a composite material in which the key element is an ultra high strength/light weight fabric that is contra-helically wrapped onto a thermoplastic core pipe. Using a portable factory, the material can be manufactured at a job site, and installed simultaneously. As a liner, it is pulled into an existing pipeline in folded form, then re-rounded under internal pressure to become a tight fitting liner at the inner wall of a damaged/degraded host pipe. In this manner, a Smart Pipe® rehabilitation is fully capable of restoring, or exceeding, the original line pressure.
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Nov 19, 2008
News
Launch of new concept for production of single-stage peroxidecrosslinked polyethylene pipes with Borealis BorPEX™
A group of major European equipment technology developers and material producers, together with Borealis, a leading provider of innovative value-creating plastics solutions, have joined forces to design a single-stage production process for high-performance peroxidecrosslinked polyethylene (PE-Xa) pipes.
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Nov 17, 2008
News
Insituform Wins $10.3M CIPP Project in Connecticut: Over 12 months of trenchless sewer rehabilitation work in Connecticut positions Insituform for area growth
Insituform Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq Global Select Market: INSU) was awarded a $10.3 million sewer contract in November from the Metropolitan Development Commission (MDC) for the rehabilitation of 270,000 linear feet of sewer lines using Insituform® cured-in-place pipe (CIPP). Insituform® CIPP is a jointless pipe-within-a-pipe that extends the life of existing infrastructure by 100 years.
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Nov 13, 2008
News
HAMMERHEAD, Manufacturer of Trenchless Products Launches New Website
HammerHead Trenchless Equipment, North America’s largest manufacturer of piercing tools, pipe bursting and pipe ramming systems announces the launch of a totally redesigned interactive website this month. The site, www.hammerheadtrenchless.com is designed as a state-of-the-art communications channel between HammerHead and its customers, worldwide.
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Nov 12, 2008
News
World First As Yorkshire Water Repairs Pipes Without Digging Up The Road
Digging up Yorkshire's roads to fix leaking water pipes or bursts could become a thing ofthe past thanks to Platelet Technology® being pioneered in the water industry byYorkshire Water.
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Nov 11, 2008
News
Robbins Opens New Asia Pacific Office
Robbins announces its new office, Robbins Asia Pacific Pty Ltd., which will provide service in the fast-developing Asia Pacific Region. Located in Hong Kong, the office will focus on sales, technical support, and procurement. The branch is in addition to three other Robbins offices in Asia.
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Nov 10, 2008
Article
Direct Pipe ®: Latest innovation in pipeline construction - technology and references
Various methods have so far been applied for crossing works in order to build steel or polyethylene pipelines as pressure lines. Pipe jacking and segmental lining allow for the construction of protective tunnels with subsequent insertion of the pipe string. The HDD method, in contrast, includes the construction of a pilot bore prior to pipe pull-in. Recent developments such as the Easy Pipe method comprise jacking processes -- where tight connection interim steel pipes are pushed towards the target shaft, coupled to a pipeline and then pulled back together. All these methods include a two- or multi-step pipe installation process. The multilevelness of these methods and pertinent aspects such as costs and project duration led to the development of the DIRECT PIPE® method: Steel or polyethylene pipes can now for the first time be jacked efficiently and fast in one operation process.
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Nov 07, 2008
News
From Folkestone to Hong Kong - 20 Years in Worldwide Tunnelling
A tunnel that bored 40m under the sea floor, for a distance of 38 km, would undoubtedly present an epic challenge. Back in 1988, the Channel Tunnel project was to become the starting point for Bennett Associates’ journey into the world of tunnelling. This year sees the 20th anniversary of their involvement in the tunnelling industry.
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Nov 05, 2008
News
WEFTEC®?s Growth Continues! WEFTEC.08 is the Largest in Conference?s 81-Year History
Alexandria, Va. – Record-setting numbers of 21,950 attendees and 1,111 companies using 290,000 net square feet of exhibit space have designated WEFTEC.08 – the Water Environment Federation’s 81st Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference – as the largest event in its 81-year history. The previous records of 19,929 attendees, 1,017 companies and 268,405 net square feet of floor space were set just last year at WEFTEC.07 in San Diego. Last week’s conference was the premier gathering of water environment professionals that offered the most dynamic educational and training experience in WEFTEC’s history with 31 workshops, 115 technical sessions, and 10 facility tours that addressed the timeliest issues in water, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, energy, green initiatives, science, research, and legislative and political issues.
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Nov 03, 2008
News
Lux Research introduces water technology practice: New service announced at Lux Executive Summit, premier forum for science-driven innovation
Boston, MA – October 20, 2008 – Pressures on water availability are reaching new heights, with nearly half the world’s population facing severe water stress. Business leaders are seeking new opportunities to both meet these requirements and generate defensible profits, spending more than $220 billion in the last ten years on water deals. To assist them, Lux Research today introduced the Lux Water Intelligence service, which combines global innovation scouting with comprehensive reports and analyst access to uncover new technologies and business models in water. The service was announced at the opening of the 4th annual Lux Executive Summit, the premier forum for science-driven innovation.
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Oct 30, 2008
Article
The ORFEUS Project: a step change in Ground Penetrating Radar technology to locate buried utilities
There is a serious issue associated with the inability to detect and accurately locate buried utility assets and, as a result, too many holes are dug in the road. This creates problems such as traffic delays, leading to unnecessary fuel usage, and quality of life issues related to air quality, noise pollution and lost time. This is not a single utility problem and needs to be addressed on a European basis, with utilities working together to provide appropriate solutions. ORFEUS is a European Commission funded Specific Targeted Research Project (STREP) recently begun with the aim of developing the next generation of ground penetrating radar (GPR) systems. They will raise the probability of detection of underground buried assets and, as a result, significantly ease their rehabilitation and/or replacement. The project will last for 36 months and will cost €5 million.
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Oct 29, 2008
News
Why how much water runs down the rivers
Humans are increasingly altering the amount of water that runs from the land to the sea or inland waters. Calculations with a global vegetation and hydrology model indicate that precipitation had the largest impact on global river discharge over the 20th century. Regionally, however, discharge varied according to factors such as land use change and irrigation practices, temperature, and the concentration of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) report in the journal "Geophysical Research Letters". The impact of these mainly anthropogenically driven factors on discharge and the availability of water for human use is expected to grow in the future.
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Oct 27, 2008
News
The world looses 45 million cubic metres of water every day: UNW-DPC and UN-HABITAT look for applying solutions
UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) and United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) organized from 3 to 5 September 2008 the International Workshop on “Drinking Water Loss Reduction: Developing Capacity for Applying Solutions”, held at the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany. More than 60 participants, including water managers and water decisionmakers from 18 cities around the world confronted with the problem of drinking water losses, met in Bonn to share their experiences regarding technical, political and administrative solutions and capacity development tools.
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