In 2021, The Rimon Group in Bat Yam, Israel, purchased equipment from Akkerman to help rehabilitate a sanitary sewer. The sale was facilitated through a representative Akkerman has in the Bat Yam region to help make connections such as these.
Wear and tear on the sanitary pipe can cause issues that need to be resolved through rehabilitation. When a host pipe is made of concrete, it usually flows about half-full. Septic gases are hard on the concrete, and if the pipe is not rehabilitated, it will decay. If the decay gets severe enough, the top of the tunnel can collapse and stop the flow, causing issues in household plumbing (since the septic flow has nowhere to go) and can also allow groundwater to leak in, which can negatively affect how the sanitary sewer is treated.
The Akkerman sliplining system works by sliding a slightly smaller fibreglass pipe into an existing host pipe to provide a reinforced and efficient conduit. The fibreglass pipe then becomes the new sanitary sewer pipe. The approximate lifespan of a concrete pipe is 20 years, while the fibreglass reinforced pipe (FRP) has an approximate lifespan of 100 years or more. An advantage to the Akkerman sliplining equipment is that it can be installed while the sewer system is actively flowing. This reduces the need for costly bypass pumping while the sewer line is rehabilitated.
In March 2022, members of the Akkerman team travelled to Bat Yam, Israel to provide training on Rimon’s initial 140 m long installation. The modular design of the Akkerman SLS-100 sliplining system was set-up to accommodate the 2.8 m long, 1,800 mm diameter FRP pipes while minimising surface disruption around the project site. Once onsite, the Akkerman team familiarised themselves with the crew and provided operational and safety training via translators, Google Translate, and demonstrations.
Sliplining operations were restricted to four hours each night due to severe fluctuations in the sewer flow in the region. Initially estimating the first installation would take three full shifts, the crew was able maximise productivity and install the 1,800 mm diameter FRP in just two shifts. Due to the simplicity of the Akkerman SLS100 sliplining system, the crew averaged around 6 minutes to set and install each 2.8 m long section of pipe. Once complete with this installation, the experienced crew was able to set-up and successfully utilise the system on several other scheduled projects.
This was the second project in Israel that Akkerman had been involved in, and the first of this particular type of project. Akkerman is looking forward to the potential for future pipe rehabilitation work in this region.
