Radius' Services Division, UPlus Responds to Gas Emergency
UPlus, the services division of Radius Systems, quickly responded to and carried out an emergency repair for NGN/UUOL on a 250mm, 7 bar HDPE gas main in Hemingborough, North Yorkshire. All but one of the 2,500 customers served by the gas main were uninterrupted.
On the evening of 25 October, Radius Systems' regional sales co-ordinator received a phone call from NGN/UUOL informing him that a gas main had been damaged by a chain trencher laying land drains over agricultural land. This incident had resulted in a large and continuous escape of gas and NGN required materials and operatives to repair it as quickly as possible.
The Radius and UPlus emergency team swung into action, quickly locating the materials required for a long bypass and engaging skilled operatives. Radius holds an emergency stock for NGN/UUOL at its Newton Aycliffe facility from which 100m coils of 90mm and 125mm and 12m sticks of 250mm Orange 7 bar gas pipe were picked.
Additional items were needed including branch saddles for the bypass operation, and these were sourced at the Hilcote facility. True dedication was shown by UPlus and Radius employees who worked through the night to ensure that the required materials began arriving at the incident site within hours and the repair work commenced.
The repair took two days during which UPlus was involved in the following:
· constructing and commissioning a 180m bypass around the damaged section of the main
· assisting pressure monitoringwhile the installation and removal of 250mm slow release squeeze offs were carried out
· cutting out and piecing through the damaged section of main
· testing and commissioning the new section
· decommissioning and removing the bypass
