Patent Application
20160333532
The present invention pertains to utility service lines within the right-of-way of public roads and streets. More specifically, the present invention provides an apparatus and a method for installing pipes and conduits in road pavements with minimum cover.
Transportation, communications, and utility networks are essential components of modern life. A major part of such networks are pipelines and cables that run below the surface mostly in the right-of-way of public roads and streets. Increasingly, the possibility of two or more utility lines conflicting or intersecting is a problem as the need for services grow and the space underneath roads becomes congested, making the availability of new alignments and construction of new utility service lines difficult in urban areas. Utility service lines take the form of a conduit or pipeline, which are herein used interchangeably with utility service lines to mean the same.
Current standards and guidelines require a minimum cover depth below the road pavement for buried pipelines and conduits to protect the pipe against surface loads, exposure, and temperature, and to maintain the integrity and safety of the road. There are currently no utility lines permitted within the road pavement for concern of adverse impact on the safety, integrity, construction, operation, and maintenance of public roads by transportation authorities.
The vertical space beneath the road surface that is the pavement is currently only utilized for bearing and transfer of the traffic load above to the natural ground formation below and as such is a grossly underutilized resource. Structurally, this space could accommodate one or more conduits without compromising its load bearing and load transfer properties while maintaining its safety and integrity, and thus be used to route utility service lines without any adverse impacts. The road pavement is currently only used to accommodate utility service line in special circumstances such as road crossings by means of encasement of commercial pipe in reinforced concrete, a method not suitable for long pipelines because of several limitations including small pipe size, extensive volume of steel and concrete, long schedule, and cost. Currently, there are no feasible techniques for constructing pipelines within the road pavement with minimal or no cover depth. Such a technique would enable the utilization of the road pavement to accommodate utility service lines, greatly increase the availability of new pipeline alignments, and constitute a major advancement towards satisfying the utility service needs of modern life.
Therefore, there is a need for a means of increasing the utility of existing road pavements to accommodate utility service lines without adversely affecting the safety, integrity, construction, operation, and maintenance of public roads.
The present invention provides a solution for the above stated need with an apparatus and method for both supporting a pipe within its trench and shielding it from direct loads from the roadway above. The invention consists of the required service pipe strapped to the underside of a conventional steel plate of specific dimensions and structural properties plus as shallow “T” section trench excavated within the road pavement to accommodate the steel plate and its strapped pipe. Steel plates are currently used in roads to temporarily cover over utility trenches during construction. The present invention uses them to permanently cover over a trench and divert the forces around while maintaining the strapped pipe suspended in the trench without any contact with the trench perimeter. With this arrangement, the steel plate bears the entire dead and live loads of the roadway above plus the weight of the pipeline below, and the pipeline is not subjected to any external loads other than the straps that keep it suspended inside the trench.
One key advantage of the present invention is that it does not need a minimum cover depth to withstand direct traffic loads and thus allows the pipeline to be placed within the pavement with only the surface course as the cover. Another key advantage of the preset invention is that the pipeline is suspended in the trench and not directly supported by the ground meaning that there are no external forces on the pipeline that could threaten its integrity and safety.
Installation of the present invention is relatively simple and straightforward, particularly compared with existing pipes that require bed preparation, compaction, and backfill soil cover. The apparatus of the present invention is assembled by strapping bell-end pipe segments to corresponding steel plates that are shorter by the length of the spigot. In existing roads, a “T” section trench is excavated in the pavement to accommodate the plurality of steel plates and corresponding strapped pipes. The plates are then sequentially placed in the trench with the bell end facing the spigot. In plastic pipes, jointing compound is applied and the plates are sequentially pulled in to close the gap between consecutive plates and thereby fully insert the spigot into the bell until the plate ends are touching. In steel pipes that require the clamping of the bell and spigot joint, a certain length of the steel plate directly above the joint on either the bell end, the spigot end, or both may be made removable to permit the clamping operation. The installation does not require any bed preparation, backfilling, compaction, etc. of the trench as the pipe is suspended. The void space in the trench may be injected with grout through holes in the plate segments to insure the stability and longevity of the trench and not for load transfer or bearing purposes. In new road construction, the “T” section trench may be molded in the road pavement using formwork.
The present invention can be utilized in a number of embodiments that vary the number, material, and duty of the pipelines placed in the trench. The present invention allows more than one pipeline suspended from the steel plate and a combination of utility service pipes, from pressurized conveyance to cables in conduits. The present invention can be utilized as a single-line pressure pipe of certain diameter conveying a certain pressurized fluid, a multi-line pressure pipe that conveys one or a plurality of different-type fluids, a single or multi-line conduit for various-type cables, or a multi-conduit utility trench for various service lines
It is an object of the present invention to provides a technique for installing pipelines and conduits within road pavements to provide for increased utilization of the road to accommodate utility service lines.
It is an object of this invention to provide improved elements and arrangements by apparatus for the purposes described thereof, which is comparable in cost with existing systems, dependable, and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.
These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.
Referring to
The present invention is susceptible to modifications and variations which may be introduced thereto without departing from the inventive concepts and the object of the invention. Materials other than steel, such as other metals, composites, plastics, carbon fiber, etc. may be used for bearing and transferring the traffic loads while shielding the service pipe from the traffic loads. Service pipes with joint types other than bell end may be used. Details other than those shown may be used at joints while the different means of fastening the pipe to the steel plate may be used.
While the present invention has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the present invention is not to be limited to the disclosed arrangements, but is intended to cover various arrangements which are included within the spirit and scope of the broadest possible interpretation of the appended claims so as to encompass all modifications and equivalent arrangements which are possible.
