Building Success Together: Collaborative Approaches to Horizontal Directional Drilling with Steel Pipe

Trenchless pipe applications in the water industry are common practice where open-cut pipe applications may not be suitable. One prominent type of trenchless application in the water industry is horizontal directional drilling (HDD), where a hole is bored under a specific area and the pipe is then pulled through the bored hole. A variety of pipe materials are used for HDD around the country, and the purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of spiral-welded steel pipe for this application. A spiral-welded steel pipe is designed as a flexible conduit according to M11/AWWA C200. Using a butt-weld joint, a joint where two pipe ends are butted together and welded to join the two ends, a steel pipe can be used for HDD. This paper will discuss the design, feasibility, and constructability of the steel pipe in HDD applications. It will highlight one recent project and its success in using a resilient, flexible pipe material under extreme project circumstances. The noted project will also highlight a collaborative delivery method and the impact a supplier has in this process.