Development of Guidelines for Implementation of Horizontal Directional Drilling

While the fundamentals of horizontal directional drilling (HDD) technology are well known, the implementation of HDD involves utilizing a vast range of equipment and installation procedures. This project developed HDD guidance documents to provide the Illinois Department of Transportation with metrics to evaluate a proposed HDD installation. This report compiled information collected during this project, including a literature review, HDD case histories observation, and an industry survey. Four main guidance documents, including the proposed HDD Guidelines, HDD Guidance Specifications, Permit Submittal Checklist, and Inspector Checklist, are the main products developed from the project.

Natech Risk Assessment and Control Through Innovative Risk Reduction Measures – Pipeline / Landslide Interaction Case

At the end of 2018, a large-scale landslide was identified near the Right of Way of one of the pipelines operated by Cenit Transporte y Logística de Hidrocarburos. In this zone it was possible to identify a populated area and a river. At the beginning the depth of the Landslide did not represent a hazard to the pipeline due to the Horizontal Directional Drilling technique applied when the pipeline was built. A monitoring program was developed through inclinometers and piezometers and In-Line Inspections were carried out to identify any disturbance in the alignment of the pipeline. From the monitoring program and In-Line Inspection data it was possible to confirm interaction between the landslide and the pipeline. A perpendicular force to the pipeline alignment produces a bending strain at two points, and landslide interact with the pipeline along a length of 170 m. The depth of the landslide failure surface was in between 17 to 22 m, and the pipeline was about 15 m deep. Due to this interaction, it was necessary to develop a risk assessment to identify a safe limit displacement. For a while, this allowed us to design both a temporal innovative solution considering a flexible pipeline and a definitive solution to build the new segment of the pipeline which was deeper than the last one, through the Horizontal Directional Drilling technique.