Problem
Our team received a distress call from a major metropolitan healthcare center. This facility had experienced a catastrophic failure on a 24-inch chilled water main. The situation was urgent due to the severe nature of the problem and the fact that it occurred at a major level one trauma center.
Solution
After we identified the root cause of the failure, the Mallory & Evans service team performed line stops and line freezes to install taps for a temporary chiller to maintain the hospitals operations during the repairs.
The Situation
One major challenge was the need to keep the facility open and operational during the repair process, so all work had to be completed while continuing to provide the necessary cooling to maintain the customer’s operating requirements. Upon investigation, our team discovered that “water hammering” had caused a 24-inch inline flex to expand, which in turn caused the pipe to shift over 20 inches, This movement caused a 24-inch grooved coupling and expansion joint to fail.
The Work
Our process included multiple strategically-staged shutdowns of the facilities main chilled water system, and the installation of a temporary chiller. In addition, our team installed isolation valves to make the needed repairs to the affected pipe and grooved coupling that had shifted during the failure.
The Results
We successfully restored the water main back to its original center lines, and all effective couplings and expansion devices were replaced without affecting the operation of the facility. As a result, this project was completed as planned without any major interruption to the healthcare facility and to satisfaction of a distressed customer.
