The operating engineers of the City of Fort Saskatchewan, a suburb outside of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, recently faced this difficult decision. The city recently issued a tender that specified for the manhole-to-manhole lining of an estimated 1,100 m of 8 inch mainline sewer pipe, as well as the rehabilitation of 101 service connections, including the laterals that go to the cleanout of the house. The tender specified and required that the lateral products adhere to the ASTM F-2561-06 standard. This standard is defined as: the rehabilitation of a sewer service lateral and its connection to the main using a one-piece main and lateral cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) liner.

IVIS Inc. was one of the service providers that submitted a bid that offered a product that complied with the ASTM F-2561 standard and IVIS Inc. is a licensed installer of the Performance Liner T-Liner process by LMK Technologies. This system has been designed and engineered to produce a long-term structural CIPP main to lateral lining that reduces infiltration and exfiltration, eliminates root intrusion, and is engineered to provide a minimum 50-year service life.

This one-piece, structural CIPP lining complies with ASTM F-1216 appendix x1 and incorporates gasket-sealing technology to make a water tight compression sealed connection that is compatible with all manhole-to-manhole liner systems. Operations Manager and IVIS Engineer Roger Ficko noted that during regular consultations with the City of Fort Saskatchewan, “they were extremely satisfied with the Performance Liner and T-Liners that were installed on previous projects in Fort Saskatchewan and the same was also true for the complimentary trenchless cleanout product called VAC-A-TEE, a process for installing a new cleanout through a small diameter (20 inch) vacuum excavated bore hole.”

The installation of these VAC-A-TEE cleanouts serves several purposes, such as: verification of pipe diameters, proper measurements for transitions and liner lengths; pipe cleaning (removal of fats, oils and grease), root cutting; proper positioning of lateral CIPP lining; and verification of successful installation, to name a few. The external cleanout not only allows the work to be done correctly, but it also allows a visual inspection access for any future inquiries or maintenance. Additionally, this system minimises risk to the contractor during the installation process by allowing the contractor to insert a plug on the upstream side of the cleanout which prevents unexpected flow during the inversion and curing processes.

To date, IVIS Inc. has installed just under 300 ASTM F-2561 compliant CIPP lateral liners in the City of Fort Saskatchewan since 2009 ranging from 30–132 ft in length. LMK has over 60,000 Performance T-Liners installed throughout North America. Recent warranty CCTV inspection was conducted on the Fort Saskatchewan T-Liners and they were found to be in the same condition as they were on the date of installation, and all infiltration was eliminated. The city of Fort Saskatchewan is beautifully situated on the southern banks overlooking the North Saskatchewan River and its roadways are lined with boulevards full of trees.

Robin Benoit, City of Fort Saskatchewan, Department of Public Works said “Root intrusion is the number one issue that we are dealing with when it comes to preserving the function of our wastewater collection system. We believe that CIPP lining of the sewer mains with an effective structural CIPP seal at the lateral interface will preserve the operational integrity of our sanitary system for the next 50–100 years.”

Project Manager for IVIS Inc. Chad Eaton said “Although the tender called for the ASTM F-2561 specification as it applied to the rehabilitation of the service laterals the city did have the option with respect to deciding as to whether the specification would be adhered to.”

He also noted that the “tender document clearly states that the lowest bid will not necessarily be accepted either.”

The City of Fort Saskatchewan sanitary and sewer rehabilitation team, with much concern, sought out the positives and negatives and made an educated decision to uphold the ASTM F-2561 specification. They decided that upholding the specification was the most prudent thing to do for the residents of this city.

“Upholding the specification offers us a calculated engineering design that ensures our infrastructure will receive an effective life extension of another 50–100 years,” said Mr Benoit, “and IVIS Inc. as a service provider in tandem with the T-Liner and VAC-A-TEE serves our community most effectively.”