Eurotank Installations’ (EI) pipefitting team had their work cut out to complete some recent works on a site with a high water table.
The project for Pricewatch at its new Wivelsfield Service Station near Haywards Heath in West Sussex included replacing old pipework, but the site has such a high water table that Pipefitter Phill Whale said it was the highest water level he’d come across in his 25 years working in the industry.
With the absence of groundwater monitoring wells, which are commonplace on forecourts, the team had to come up with a strategy to overcome the sheer volume of water. They dug deeper trenches than usual and used a pump to lower the water volume enough to excavate a specific area, put the pipe in, test it and then backfill so the pipework didn’t lift overnight when the pump wasn’t running.
The customer Tom Buckley, General Manager of Pricewatch, was impressed with the way the team got around the issue. “When they dug the trenches for the pipework it looked like they’d built a model of the Berlin canals. The high water table is the biggest challenge of the site but Eurotank worked well to get the work done.”