Sewer Construction

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Sewerage Rehabilitation
This deals with ‘upgrading’ existing sewers which
might be deficient in some way.
The deficiencies can be categorised as follows:-
a) Hydraulic
Sewer may have insufficient capacity or insufficient
gradient to achieve self cleaning velocities. An
assessment is made as to whether this leads to
excessive surcharging or flooding and whether there
is excessive build up of sediment due to lack of
gradient.

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b) Structural
The condition of the sewer is likely to be affected by
the age of the sewers, the extent and quality of
connections made, the pipeline material and the quality
of workmanship during construction.
c) Maintenance
The ease or otherwise of the sewer maintenance is
related to the hydraulic & structural conditions of the
sewer. High Priority sewers are normally those that
require excessive maintenance e.g. repairs to
collapsed sewers etc.
d) Environmental
What is the effect on the receiving waters and
groundwaters of the defective sewer? Energy Environment Infrastructure
How are deficiencies determined?
a) Hydraulic
Hydraulic deficiencies can be determined by:-
• Flow measurement – this validates the extent of
flows and must be for a sufficiently long time to
capture all flow variations – seasonal as well as
diurnal;
• Modelling – based on theoretical and validated by
the flow measurement data collected;
• Examination of previous maintenance issues. This
will add validity or to the flow measurement &
modelling of the sewerage system. It may also point
to particular issues not captured by either the flow
measurement or the modelling Energy Environment Infrastructure
How are deficiencies determined?
a) Hydraulic (contd…)
It may be possible to better manage the hydraulics of a
particular sewer by flow diversion or flow reduction
(e.g. CSO). (Beware of worsening environmental
effects by introduction of CSO’s).

Management of the system hydraulics should be

carried out at an early stage. The results of such an
exercise, if successful, provides an economical
solution to a network issue

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How are deficiencies determined (contd…)
b) Structural
Inspection, generally by CCTV survey. Such an
inspection results in a report (& DVD of surveyed
sewer) compiled in accordance with the WRc
Publication ‘Manual of Sewer Condition Classification’.

This document also sets out procedures for CCTV

inspection and coding guidelines for pipeline and
manhole defects.

View: CCTV Survey CCTV Survey.mpg

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c) Maintenance
Reports from Local Authorities, number of repairs
carried out, number of times sewer jetted & cleaned
etc.

d) Environmental
A bit more difficult to quantify but by data collection &
sampling & testing.

Procedures for rehabilitation are set out in ‘Sewerage

Rehabilitation Manual’ (Available on-line)

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Rehabilitation Techniques
i. Repairs
These can be carried out manually with man entry
sewers, for example grouting of defective or leaking
joints or lining sections of the sewer. The sewer is
cleaned and jetted prior to work commencing. Given
that these large sewers are critical to the operation of
the network, such repair work is normally carried out
by night when the sewer can be temporarily
decommissioned and low flows overpumped for the
duration of the repairs.

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i. Repairs (Cont’d)
Where sewers are too small to accommodate a
person, then repairs are carried out remotely using
robotic equipment fitted with CCTV cameras. This
method of works can be carried out for example to
chemical grout defective joints or connections. This
involves isolating the pipe at each side of the joint with
inflatable stoppers and applying the grout under
pressure to the defective pipe. A high watertable might
provide resistance to such repair techniques if the
external pressure around the pipe is too high.

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ii. Lining
Lining of sewers is a common method of increasing its
hydraulic capacity (by decreasing the pipewall
resistance) as well as reducing infiltration. The
downside is that the nominal diameter of the sewer will
be somewhat reduced.

Lining may be in the form of sliplining – a continuous

length of HDPE lining rolled out within the pipe and
placed against the existing pipe wall.

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Sliplining of brick sewer using GRP lining Energy Environment Infrastructure
ii. Lining (Cont’d)
An alternative lining method is to pull a continuous
length of welded HDPE pipe through the sewer. This is
normally carried out if it is considered that the
structural integrity of the existing sewer is inadequate.
Sometimes this new pipe is pulled through following a
pipe bursting exercise either to maintain or increase
the existing pipe size.
The slow and difficult parts of lining tend to be the
reconnection of existing connections to the newly lined
pipe. One option is to trace back the connection pipes
and construct a new high level sewer (rider sewer)
which will collect flow from all connections, leaving just
a single connection to the low level sewer. Energy Environment Infrastructure
ii. Lining (Cont’d)
Cured in place linings (GRP) are also used. Such
liners are installed in a flexible state and are cured
(hardened) against the existing pipe wall when filled
with water.

Section through lined pipe

Continuous pipe lining
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ii. Lining (Cont’d)
The upgrading of a sewerage network normally
comprises a combination of replacement and
rehabilitation works. Costs (capital & operational) as
well as technical requirements frequently determine
the optimum solution and hence the balance between
both methods.
Indeed sewerage rehabilitation is often carried out on
a phased basis to facilitate assessment of upgrade
works on the overall scheme.

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Final note on self-cleansing design of sewers
While we design new sewers for a specified self
cleansing velocity, it should be recognised that a single
value of minimum velocity, unrelated to the
characteristics and concentration of the sediment or
the other aspects of the hydraulic behaviour of the
sewer, does not properly represent the ability of sewer
flows to transport sediment.
A more particular definition of self cleansing as
presented in CIRIA report 141 ‘Design of sewers to
control sediment problems’ is as follows:-

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‘An efficient self-cleansing sewer is defined as one with a
sediment transporting capacity that is sufficient to maintain a
balance between the amounts of deposition and erosion, with a
time averaged depth of sediment deposition that minimises the
combined costs of construction, operation and maintenance.
Three sediment movement criteria should be met to ensure
adequate self cleansing, based on the capability of flows in the
sewer to:
• transport a minimum concentration of fine grain particles in
suspension
• transport coarser granular material as bedload
• erode particles from a deposited bed.
Evidence is presented to show that different criteria can govern
the design at particular pipe sizes, depending on the applicable
sediment characteristics and concentrations’.
Ref:- CIRIA report 141 ‘ Design of sewers to control sediment problems’
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In addition, this document examined and makes
recommendations on sediment transport methods as
follows:-
‘Two alternative mobility criteria can be considered in
association with the transport of coarse sediment (grit) as
bedload:
• either to ensure there is no deposited material on the pipe
invert under design flow conditions (the ‘limit-of-deposition’
condition)
• or to allow a certain, controlled amount of deposition’.

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Thus sewers can be (and frequently are) designed on
the basis that they are not completely sediment free all
of the time. Such criteria might apply particularly to
existing sewers and the design should take account of
sediment deposits in the sewer and the consequent
reduction in hydraulic efficiency.
For combined sewers a design scenario could be that
the sediment will be fully or partially flushed out during
storm conditions.
The design of sewers for these conditions (i.e.
incorporating sediment in the sewer design) is outside
the scope of this module.
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