The City of Fort Wayne, Ind., recently replaced approximately 24,000 feet of a corroded cast-iron water main that had experienced more than 100 leaks and breaks over the years with corrosion-resistant CertainTeed Certa-Lok C900/RJ restrained-joint PVC pipe. Since the main was located in a densely populated residential area, the city and its contractor, Atlas Excavating Inc., of West Lafayette, Ind., decided that replacing the water main with Certa-Lok pipe via directional drilling would be the most cost-effective and least disruptive way to get the job done.

“Since Certa-Lok pipe is assembled during pullback, it helps minimize disturbance to the surrounding area,” says Casey Dillon, project manager for Atlas Excavating. “Assembling the pipe never takes too much time, and you don’t have to fuse hundreds of feet of pipe above ground throughout the neighborhood and block people’s driveways. It helps us to keep complaints at a minimum.”

After overcoming the obstacles of drilling through extra-hard and dry clay, Atlas Excavating installed approximately 10,000 feet of 6-inch and 13,500 feet of 8-inch Certa-Lok C900/RJ PVC, providing the City of Fort Wayne with a new water main that will stand up to corrosive soil to provide long-lasting, efficient water distribution.

Certa-Lok C900/RJ is a PVC product suitable for both water and wastewater applications. Its joining system, which utilizes a high-strength spline to connect pipe lengths, reliably holds the pipe together during installation and pressurization, while elastomeric O-rings provide a dependable pressure seal.

“Certa-Lok has many qualities that appeal to contractors, specifically its leak resistance and quick assembly without the need for time-consuming and expensive joint fusion,” says John Coogan, marketing manager for CertainTeed’s Pipe Business.  “Certa-Lok also requires a thinner wall than HDPE for an equivalent pressure rating, which significantly reduces material, drilling and operating costs, and it is compatible with conventional repair components that most municipalities already have in stock. All of these factors make Certa-Lok an ideal product for budget-minded municipalities.”