Groundworks contractor KO Plant of Eastleigh, Hampshire, used the electro-hydraulic culvert-puller to assemble a 150 m long precast concrete attenuation tank which will store rainwater run-off at the university’s Gipsy Lane campus.
The equipment is designed specifically to create a secure tight-fitting joint between adjacent culvert sections and thus ensure a water-tight structure.
The 150 m long x 3.5 m wide x 2 m high tank is buried approximately 4m below ground and comprises 100 concrete culvert sections each 1.5 m long. “We lay the sections on a prepared bed to within an inch or so of their final position and then use the culvert-puller to pull them tightly together” explains KO Plant director Ian Duncan.
Each culvert section has sockets cast into one edge into which corresponding spigots on the neighbouring section are located. Tolerances are very small to eliminate gaps and the joint is made watertight with a special mastic sealant.
“The sections have to be accurately aligned and it takes some force to pull them together” says Mr Duncan. “You can’t just push them together with a digger bucket.”
The Piletec culvert-puller is the quickest and most efficient method of installing precast concrete culverts and large diameter pipes. Powered by its own self-contained electro-hydraulic power pack, the device uses a simple arrangement of chains and pulling beams to draw each culvert section up against its neighbour with a force equivalent to 14 tonnes.
For large culverts, two units can be used in tandem for extra pulling force.
Andy King, Piletec’s sales consultant for the Southern Region, says the company’s Milton Keynes depot, which supplied KO Plant with the culvert-puller has hired additional ancillary equipment on the back of this order. “KO Plant was employed originally just for this job, but over the past year they’ve done other groundworks on the site and we’ve been happy to keep supplying them.”
The attenuation tank will collect storm-water runoff from hard landscaping across the university’s Gipsy Lane campus where a new 23,000 sq m development is being constructed The project comprises a library, lecture theatres, students’ union, a food court, medical suite and commercial units.
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