business & market news
22
Tube Products International January 2014
Project to reduce groundwater abstraction
More than 19km of GPS PE Pipe’s blue
polyethylene pipe has been successfully
installed in West Berkshire, UK, as
part of Optimise’s £10mn project for
Thames Water to reduce groundwater
abstraction at Speen water treatment
works.
The network improvement project
aims to support the environmental
condition of the River Kennet and
reduce groundwater abstraction by an
average of 4.5mn litres per day, thanks
to the installation of a new pipeline
between Tilehurst and Cold Ash Service
Reservoir, near Newbury, via Thames
Water’s existing water booster station
in Bradfield. Optimise has completed
installation of the pipeline, and the entire
scheme was due to be handed over to
Thames Water by the end of 2013.
The pipeline follows the route of the
M4 motorway, and involved directional
drilling under the main carriageway,
along with another major road, three
crossings of the River Kennet and several
minor roads and tracks. GPS supplied
SDR11 and SDR17 355mm pipe to
address variations in water pressure
along the route, which ranges from
4 bar to 11-12 bar after the pumping
station. The SDR11 pipe was used
for directional drilling where additional
pipe strength is required for this type of
installation.
GPS also supplied bespoke transition
pieces to accommodate multiple
changes in pipe wall thickness, and
SlimFlange adaptors for connections
to metal gate valves. The use of
SlimFlanges meant that 300mm valves
were used, as opposed to 355mm if
standard stub flanges had been used.
Lengths of pipe were butt-fused
together in order to create the 19.2km
pipeline, maximising the welded length
whilst minimising mechanical joints.
Once operational, the new pipeline will
provide an additional potable water
supply route for Newbury to safeguard
continuity of supply.
GPS PE Pipe Systems
– UK
Product Environmental Footprint
pilot scheme
TEPPFA (The European Plastics Pipes
and Fittings Association) has been
selected by the European Commission to
participate in the Product Environmental
Footprint (PEF) pilot scheme, which
measures environmental performance
throughout a product’s lifecycle. TEPPFA
will lead the technical secretariat for one
of the pilot scheme projects, supported
by project partners Plastics Europe,
EuPR, Vito and the PEX Association.
Tony Calton, general manager of
TEPPFA, explained that the association
has for several years been at the forefront
of developing Life Cycle Analyses and
Environmental Product Declarations for
the plastic pipes industry, and believes
that this has contributed to its success
with selection for the PEF pilot scheme.
The announcement is part of the EU
Single Market for Green Products
(SMGP) – an initiative that seeks to
harmonise the methodology to measure
the environmental performance of
products and organisations.
“To boost sustainable growth consumers
need to be able to identify genuinely
green products and companies, and this
is an important step in that direction,”
said Dr Janez Potocnik, European
Commissioner for the Environment.
“And it’s clear from the 90 applications
we received that industry too is on
board. I would like to thank all applicants
for the excellent proposals – it was
extremely hard to make a choice and
I do realise that behind each proposal
there was serious effort. I look forward
to working closely with volunteers.
Reliable and comparable information
about the environmental impacts will
bring increased transparency and will
build trust with consumers, business
partners and investors.”
TEPPFA is a group of 15 European
national associations and 11 direct
member companies across Europe.
Member companies directly employ
40,000 people and produce 3mn tons
of plastic pipes annually, representing
an annual turnover of €12,000bn.
TEPPFA
– Belgium
GPS supplied more than 19km of polyethylene pipe for the project
