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In Santo Amaro, the main center in the south of São Paulo, Saertex multiCom has rehabilitated a drinking water pipeline that supplies around 900,000 households. "One of the three parallel pipes had a large leak, so it had to be repaired immediately to ensure the supply of water to the many people in Santo Amaro, to avoid wasting water and to prevent the pipe from breaking completely. The work also had to be carried out as quickly as possible to avoid overloading the other two pipes, which would take over the entire water supply to the district during the rehabilitation," says Kai Diecks, Global Managing Director at Saertex multiCom, describing the requirements. 

The route of the pipeline was also a particularly big challenge for the renovation project: 172 of the 520-metre-long pipeline run through a busy mixed area of family homes, offices, bank headquarters and street traders. Residents, existing infrastructure and road traffic were to be affected as little as possible by the renovation work. An open construction site with large-scale earthworks was therefore ruled out. "Tearing up the roads and sidewalks would have been associated with immense traffic disruption as well as high levels of dirt and noise," explains Diecks.

The project team carried out most of the work in Santo Amaro overnight to minimize disruption to traffic and residents and to be able to transport the equipment from the warehouse to the construction site more quickly. The experts built a small excavation pit in five places to gain access to the supply line in order to pull the new liner into the dilapidated pipeline. Using compressed air, they set up the GRP liner in the old pipe and cured it with UV light so that it fits snugly against the old pipe. "It only took us 18 hours to rehabilitate the longest section of 172 meters in Santo Amaro, so we had as little impact on the environment as possible," says Hemsing, explaining the process. 

Global Managing Director Diecks still sees a lot of potential for trenchless pipe rehabilitation. According to a study by the International Water Association, around 346 million cubic meters of water are lost worldwide every day due to burst pipes, leaking pipes or outdated supply networks on the way to the consumer. According to the study, around 1.3 billion liters of drinking water seep into the ground unused every day in Germany. The German Association for Water Management therefore estimates that 25 percent of German pipes are in need of renovation. "Many pipes date back to before the Second World War. They urgently need to be replaced or renovated due to holes and cracks. Particularly in times of increasing droughts and the threat of water shortages, the repair of underground infrastructure will play an increasingly important role," explains Diecks. But only one percent is renovated each year, as large-scale construction measures are costly and planning-intensive. Trenchless pipe rehabilitation produces up to 70 percent less CO2 than open trench construction. By dispensing with excavation work, construction costs can be saved as well as CO2 and time, points out Daniel Kollmann, Business Development Wastewater at Saertex multiCom. The service life of a pipeline rehabilitated with glass fiber-reinforced pipe liners is at least 50 years. "More and more municipalities around the world are therefore opting for rehabilitation instead of replacing the entire pipe," says Kollmann, looking at current developments. More than 100,000 GRP pipe liners from Saertex multiCom have already been installed around the world. "With trenchless rehabilitation and our certified, glass fiber-reinforced pipe liners, we are responding to the high demand. We are convinced that the future belongs to trenchless technology and are delighted about the ever-growing interest in our rehabilitation solutions," says Kollmann, looking ahead.