NMDOT Otero County Reline

Near the busy Main Gate of the Holloman Air Force Base, the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) determined that a 19 barrel, concrete box culvert (CBC) drainage structure  was  structurally deficient and in need of replacement.

The Holloman Air Force Base is located six miles southwest of the central business district of Alamogordo and supports national security objectives by deploying worldwide to support peacetime and wartime contingencies.

Dilemma
In order to avoid the expense of shutting down US-70, the heavily trafficked highway above the structure, the NMDOT needed to find a solution which would allow them to re-condition the CBC drainage structure.

Solution
The NMDOT-approved, DuroMaxx® Steel Reinforced Polyethylene  (SRPE) liner pipe manufactured by Contech Engineered Solutions was selected to reline the existing structure. Working closely together, Contech and the NMDOT came up with a cost-effective solution for rehabilitation of the unique structure – which included one 7’2” x 8’7” and eighteen 5’ x 5’ box culverts. Using a DuroMaxx solution would allow flow to continue at max capacity due to the smooth interior lining of the liner pipe. As run-off water and soils in this particular part of New Mexico can be corrosive, a thermal plastic pipe such as DuroMaxx was an ideal solution.

Result
The CBC barrels were 58’ in length and required the same length of DuroMaxx to be installed. For each of the 19 culverts, Contech provided three joints of pipe, two at 24’ and one at 10’ in length. The pipe was manufactured with skid rails to increase the ease of installation for the contractor, General Hydronics. The pipe was jointed with bell and spigot joints. Contech also presented a grout plan that allowed the entire annular space between the pipe and the host culvert to be grouted from inside of the pipe using grout ports.

Eddy Boles, utility supervisor for General Hydronics stated, “The DuroMaxx pipe with the skids and grout ports worked very well. The skids held the pipe in place, and the grout ports made the grouting very simple.”

The entire installation was completed within four weeks – well within the required 60 day timeframe originally specified by the NMDOT. The end result was a success. DuroMaxx® SRPE was used to reline the 19-barrell drainage structure along the busy Main Gate of the Holloman Air Force Base. This greatly aided in the Global War on Terror as Holloman Air Force Base was extremely busy during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Maintaining the base’s ability to support the national security objectives by deploying worldwide to support peacetime and wartime contingencies was imperative.