Pipe Protection

In the remote North zone of Chile – where a great number of mining companies are located – it is a big challenge to avoid moist working sites that need specialized staff.

ARCH WITH FOUNDATIONS: THE OPTIMAL SOLUTION TO PROTECT PIPES.

As we enter the desert of our country, we will see that there is a large number of different diameter pipes for electrical, water, or gas channelings. The protection of these elements is vital when building new roads, but how to do it with a solution that is easy to install and transport to remote areas?

Tecnovial's Engineering Department designed a system of arches that can be fixed to the compacted soil with a steel foundation. “These structures do not require large spans, so this solution allows the load to be received in collaboration with the compacted soil, even resisting the weight of trucks. All this, without the need to carry out concrete tasks that are complex in the middle of the desert”, says Claudio Poblete, Manager of Engineering and Specification of Tecnovial.

A key advantage of this solution is that the durability and structural resistance are guaranteed by the manufacturing specifications, both in the steel and in the galvanized coating, achieving greater certainty compared to a work carried out on the ground. “For example, the structures can be assembled in a warehouse and then moved to their final location”.

“In that way, we managed to minimize field work, reducing risks, implementation times and, above all, with the certainty that the resistance of the solution depends on objective factors such as the type of corrugation and quality of the steel, rather than the workforce employed in the work”, says José Díaz, Commercial Manager of Tecnovial.

Pipe Protection

This type of structure can also be used to protect the passage of people near ore conveyor belts. “This was implemented in a mining site where the authority required that a pedestrian crossing be protected from the eventual fall of ore from a conveyor belt. With an arch with foundations, the problem was easily solved, installing a corrugated steel tunnel that was easy to assemble, resistant, and transportable”, said Ismael Silva, Specification and Development Engineer of Tecnovial.

For the subsequent inspection of the pipes or manipulation of valves, doors can be arranged to facilitate those tasks.