Located off the coast of Ft. Myers, Florida, Pine Island has an asbestos-cement water main located under Pine Island Road. Prone to severe breaks, the water main’s gate valves were no longer functioning optimally, making it extremely difficult to isolate and repair breaks. The Greater Pine Island Water Association (GPIWA) then began a multi-phase effort to alleviate these recurring problems. They retained Weston & Sampson to provide Phase I design, permitting, and construction oversight services for the replacement of 4,200 linear feet of 10-inch water main on the south side of Pine Island Road.
Weston & Sampson worked closely with GPIWA to identify the current and future needs of their system. We evaluated various pipe installation methods, reviewed the options with GPIWA, and began designing the repairs using the open cut method for a majority of the pipe repairs, combined with horizontal directional drilling (HDD) at road crossings and along environmentally sensitive areas. Weston & Sampson’s design services included records research on the old water main, use of Civil 3D® design software, re-networking the piping to/from a groundwater storage tank, and designing both horizontal and vertical deflection to avoid conflict with other utility pipes. Our efforts also included reconnecting the new water main to nearby residences and using HDD for the last 1,000 feet of pipe installation to accommodate the constraints of nearby mangrove trees.
Weston & Sampson designed and installed 4,200 feet of new water main, including new gate valves that GPIWA can use to properly isolate sections of pipe for future maintenance/repairs. With this phase of work now complete, GPIWA can now proceed with subsequent phases of their water main replacement effort.
Key Project Features:
- water main design and replacement
- horizontal directional drilling
- open cut trench installation
- pressure testing
- permitting and bidding assistance
- construction oversight
- conflict avoidance