Microtunneling the Paradise Whitney Interceptor

摘要

The Clark County Water Reclamation District (CCWRD) needed to improve and increase the capacity of its aging Southeast Las Vegas Valley wastewater collection system. The result is the Paradise Whitney Interceptor (PWI), a $150 million dollar project which features over 13 miles of gravity sewer enhancements and represents the largest concentration of trenchless installed pipelines in the U.S. in over a decade. The project is split into three segments that channel through residential areas, around the McCarran Airport and end at the district’s main treatment facility.Nearly half of the 13 miles (26,143-linear feet), was installed with microtunneling and earth pressure balance equipment by Pipe Jacking/Frontier Kemper Joint Venture (PJ/FK). The PWI interceptor design includes 32, 60-76-inch trenchless alignments in sensitive to difficult geological circumstances, at vertical depths up to 45-feet, many in areas without surface access, amid traffic and an array of buried utilities. Several reaches that were originally specified as open-cut were switched to trenchless as a result of the CCWRD’s interest in mitigating property access limitations in the residential regions.