Integrated Pump Rental Dewaters Tunnel Under Vaal River

20th September 2017

Integrated Pump Rental Dewaters Tunnel Under Vaal River

Integrated Pump Rental recently made short work of dewatering a large pipe deep under the Vaal River, expelling over 1800 cubic metres in one day in a rapid turnkey solution.

The job was to clear a 2,5 metre diameter pipeline of water, so that engineers could safely enter the tunnel to conduct their inspections. Running underneath the Vaal River from Gauteng towards Sasolburg, the pipeline drops 50 metres down from surface, then runs a horizontal distance of 270 metres under the river before rising the 50 metres back up again.

“We were requested by the contractors to dewater the tunnel expeditiously, and to remain on site to ensure that any water ingress during the inspection period could be removed,” says Integrated Pump Rental managing director, Lee Vine.

To conduct the job, four Grindex Master SH drainage pumps were installed with level regulators; the pumps are 11,7 kW units with 3-inch discharge connections. In this application, the pumps needed to overcome a 70 metre head due to the static lift and the friction losses through the lay-flat hose.

“Our service team reported to site, supplying all the necessary accessories such as electrical panels, lay-flat hoses and other fittings,” says Vine. “We were then able to commission the equipment and dewater the tunnel in a 24 hour operation, although we stayed on site for about two weeks in case our services were required while the inspections were underway.”

The contract demonstrated the wide range of capabilities offered by Integrated Pump Rental, which can offer around-the-clock projects in dewatering and can provide skilled and experienced service teams on site – timeously and with reliable, fit-for-purpose equipment.

“Such is the depth of skills and capacity of our operation that we have evolved far beyond just the hiring out of pumps and related equipment,” he adds. “We now contract to a range of customers on a turnkey basis, in industries ranging from mining and wastewater to golf courses and industry. Wherever there is a need for dewatering and slurry dredging, we have shown that we have a solution to fit the challenge.”

In addition to the expertise of the service teams, the use by Integrated Pump Rental of the respected Grindex range of submersible dewatering and slurry pumps also helps ensure that every intervention is effective and reliably implemented.

“Our technical team conducts a full needs assessment of each application, and supports customers in the selection of the appropriate solution, which are all ISO 9001 certified,” he adds. “We can also offer a full engineering capability, from design through to finite element analysis, experimental fluid dynamics and computational fluid dynamics simulations – as well as supply and installation.”