The City of Tampa’s Westshore Water Main Rehabilitation 3.2 mi Pipe Bursting Project

The City of Tampa selected trenchless technologies to rehabilitate approximately 17,000 linear feet of existing 12-in. cast iron (CIP) water main along the heavily travelled and scenic roadway, West Shore Boulevard. The existing water main was constructed in the 1960s, and the surrounding areas have developed significantly since its construction. Capacity analysis showed the existing water main did not require upsizing. The roadway corridor was very dense with existing utilities, including gravity sewer, storm sewer, force main, buried communications, and a jet fuel line serving Tampa's international airport. The roadway alignment also has several water body crossings that pose unique challenges for rehabilitation. Pipe bursting was selected as the trenchless technology method to rehabilitate 95% of the existing water main. Additional topographic information at specific water body crossings was obtained in order to determine if pipe bursting could be used or an alternate trenchless technology, such as horizontal directional drilling, was required. The project was designed using the City Water Department's existing geographical information system (GIS) data and as-built documentation to produce design plans and bid documents for advertisement in the Fall of 2019. Since pipe bursting was able to utilize existing GIS data instead of the full topographic survey to create bid documents, the City of Tampa was able to save significant cost and time during the design process. This paper will present a general overview of pipe bursting technology, design challenges, and a discussion of how this technology could be applied to other municipalities' water main rehabilitation programs.