Heat System Pipe Relined at Maynooth University Swimming Pool
Site: The pool is part of the south campus and is the second oldest of its kind in Ireland. The old college infrastructure consists of a centurial boiler house that provides the heating to all the detached buildings on the south campus. This requires a number of underground ducts to carry all services from building to building. As new buildings are added to the campus heating system, the service ducts must be extended.
System: Distributary heat system pipes running within the ducts under the swimming pool building that supply heated water the adjacent building. The system consisted of a 75mm (3”) gun-barrel pipe reducing in size to a 50mm (2”) gun-barrel pipe under the swimming pool building with limited access.
Circumvention: Given the difficult location of the piping system, a large scale construction project would have been required had the customer chosen to replace the pipe using conventional methods, or, major changes to the complete pipe system to by-pass the affected area would have been necessary. Either way, this would have required significant levels of investment which were outside the customer’s budget. It would have also caused disruption to students and campus users alike.
Solution: CapCon were able to access the system through manholes at opposite sides of the swimming pool building. This meant no digging was required and minimal disruption to campus users occurred. The system was inspected using CCTV equipment, cleaned using a mild abrasive component, and lined using the ‘Nu Line’ blown-in epoxy resin. This resin acts as a long term solution to prevent corrosion and leaks and also preserves the life of the existing pipe.
