Tele-Vac Environmental has been using Pipe Patch for quite a few years and we have only been allowed to repair pipe up to 27” in diameter. When the demand for >27” became apparent, Source One was already on the job (developing a Pillow Plug system) for these large diameter repairs.
A couple months ago, during a routine CCTV Inspection in Cincinnati, Ohio, we discovered a 36” HDPE Storm Pipe that had an “Open Joint with Soil Visible” and “Offset Medium” with a sinkhole directly above the pipe in the street! To dig down and repair this pipe externally would not be very cost effective. However, being able to use Pipe Patch to repair the defect at a fraction of the cost, it was right up the owner’s budget. The complete time to repair the pipe via Pipe Patch was about 4-5 hours! The only additional repair that was made was saw-cutting the street to replace the weak spot (where the sinkhole was).
Using the Pillow Plug, was much easier than anticipated. We have been used to heavy plugs (especially for air-testing large pipe) and would normally dread such a large repair. However, being light and able to fold the packer like a taco to contain the material and basically drag the plug through the line in place of the defect was very simple. The repair went flawlessly and the pipe is completely repaired. We plan on using this new system for any large diameter repairs needed!
