Shedding UV light on the problem

Repairing sewers by no-dig
methods is quicker and less
disruptive than excavation.

During a recent £1.7m project
for Severn Trent Water (STW)
to repair 2500m of sewers in
the historic spa town of
Buxton, UV light technology
from Lanes allowed the
company to renovate pipes in
a particularly short
timeframe.

Lee Bow, Lanes project
manager explains: “Using UV
light we can cure a liner at,
typically, one metre a minute
compared to an average 8- to
12-hours to cure a liner with
hot water. That meant we
could reduce the installation
‘window’ for each liner
greatly.

“There are other savings
too. For instance, the fibreglass
matting liners are preimpregnated
with polyester
resin so there is no wet-out
process, nor a need to keep
liners refrigerated; there are
no scaffold towers to be
erected and dismantled, no
water boilers and no fleet of
vehicles — a single unit
carries all the equipment for
each install, with the liner
simply stored in a wooden
crate and positioned by the
access point. And of course
there is no contaminated
wastewater to be disposed of
afterwards. All of this
considerably lessens the
carbon footprint.”
The UV process is straight –
forward. A camera unit is
dispatched through the pipe
with a nylon pull-cord
attached. This brings back the
steel winch line, which in turn
allows the liner to be drawn
through the pipe, before end
elements are fitted.