ENGINEERING IN FOOD & BEVERAGE URBAN PIPELINE PROTECTION With mouths still aghast that an Airport can seemingly grind to a halt in the midst of Gas-gate, and a stench spreading of third-world infrastructure back-ups – ie, none - there’s no better time to look at monitoring and maintaining what we do have: urban pipe protection. Media has devoured a timley pre-election story that delivers impact through direct inconvenience to thousands, and early on they recognised and highlighted the impact that this would have on voters, too. Travellers in New Zealand and throughout the world have been hit, and hurt, by the fuel shortage, and as we go to print Stuff had run a story on the potential problem not to have been caused by digging, but by corrosion. This turned out to not be correct, but severed or soiled, pipelines are in the limelight and a re being looked at. The time for you to look, too, is obvious. Monitoring the impact of corrosion on buried pipelines is important for ensuring pipeline integrity. There are thousands of kilometres of pipelines around the country. This infrastructure represents many millions of dollars of investment by governments and companies over many years. The cost implications of ignoring the effects of corrosion are large, making the management of risks important. The advantages of planning for corrosion control and mitigation, include extending the life of the asset while reducing maintenance time and costs. According to Jim Galanos, engineering manager at Corrosion Control Engineering (CCE), there are two aspects to protecting pipelines that traverse urban environments. The first is ensuring that there is no physical damage done to the pipelines by third parties who carelessly dig or drill near the buried pipes. “It happens far more often than we'd like,” Mr Galanos says. “The most common is another utility company excavating and then boring or directional drilling where they haven't checked the plans and applicable procedures.” The second is preventing coating damage and disruption of the cathodic protection (CP) systems. “It's not just digging into the ground. Certain types of backfilling and compaction methods can affect the flow of CP current through the soil from the anodes to a pipeline.” Once disrupted, the protection offered is greatly diminished and can be costly to restore. Mark Dragar, asset manager – pipelines for Increase productivity and ensure safety with power distribution solutions • Power distribution & protection equipment • Switchboard systems • Medium voltage power • Power quality • Retro t solutions NENGNEWSADV_81423 For more information, visit nhp-nz.com/more/pdsolutions NHP ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING PRODUCTS 0800 NHP NHP | nhp-nz.com NENGNEWSADV_81423_v2.indd 1 19/09/2017 5:13 PM 26 October 2017
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