Trenchless Technology Announces its 2015 Projects of the Year Winners

Brecksville, OH Sept. 21, 2015 –Trenchless Technology magazine, the leading publication covering the trenchless marketplace, has announced the winners of its annual Projects of the Year for 2015. Projects are awarded in New Installation and Rehabilitation categories.

This year’s winning projects feature the trenchless applications of horizontal directional drilling and pipe bursting. “We had a record-number of nominations for the Project of Year competition this year — all worthy of consideration for our top awards,” says Trenchless Technology editor James Rush. “The strength and dynamics of the trenchless market is showcased in all the nominated projects, which took place all across North America.”

The Project of the Year for New Installation is the Houston Ship Channel—Phillips 66 project, which completed a record-setting HDD reaming and pullback installation for an 18-in. steel gas pipeline reaching what once was thought to be an unachievable distance of 12,459 ft under the expansive Houston Ship Channel. The project brings a pipeline along a direct route from Scott Bay in Baytown, Texas, to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ Battleground Oil Specialty Terminal Company (BOSTCO) in LaPorte, Texas, averting a costly re-route that may have allowed a more standard HDD crossing location. Gyroscopic steering tools and other high-tech alternative steering tools were used on each of Michels’ 1.2-million-lb drill rigs to help critical steering along the alignment, which plunged to 170 ft below the water’s surface. Precise steering was most crucial at the shallower depths as existing utilities crowded the first 20 ft of depth from ground surface.

Other projects recognized in the New Installation category are: Muskrat Falls Project – Strait of Belle Isle Marine Cable (Runner-up); South Magnolia CSO Control Gravity Sewer Pipeline (Honorable Mention); and Houston Ship Channel NuStar Energy Project (Honorable Mention).
The Project of the Year for Rehabilitation is the Arlington National Cemetery Water Main Replacement Program. More than 60 years ago, a series of cast iron water mains were installed for fire suppression and potable water uses on the cemetery site. The water pipelines snake around the 70 sections of the cemetery, as well as up and down the hillside that made the Arlington site such a strategic high-ground position in the Civil War. In need of replacement, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Norfolk District determined the most efficient and effective method would be to use pre-chlorinated pipe bursting to install new HDPE pipe and called on Murphy Pipelines to handle the job.

Other projects recognized in the Rehabilitation category are: Newport Beach Force Main Phase 1 (Runner-up); City of Baltimore Department of Public Works Sanitary Contract 875: Rehabilitation of Southwest Diversion Pressure/Gravity Sewer Phase III (Honorable Mention); and WSSC Interstate 270 Transmission PCCP Repair Using CFRP (Honorable Mention).

Winners will be featured in the October 2015 issue of Trenchless Technology and formally recognized at the 2016 NASTT No-Dig Show, to be held in Dallas, March 20-24. Winners are chosen on the basis of technical advancement, technical complexity, milestones and records achieved, interaction and cooperation and advancement of the trenchless industry. They are selected by a committee of experts representing a cross section of the industry.