Sustainable sewage management through high quality piping systems made HDPE [PE]

In the past, rigid pipes made of conventional materials such as vitrified clay, concrete or cast iron were the preferred materials for sewage pipe works in many countries in Europe like in Germany due to their wide availability and their familiarity to the end-user. Such pipes do not fulfill the increasingly rising requirements for sewer networks anymore such as leak tightness and durability. Likewise, the city of Göttingen, located in central Germany, directly on the highway connecting Hannover and Kassel, faced similar problems some 20 years ago. With its 130,000 inhabitants, Göttingen is one of the 60 largest cities in Germany. In 1988 Göttingen started to systematically investigate its 700 km long sewer network (350 km sewerage lines and 350 km rain water drainage lines). Failure pictures from TV-inspections were evaluated and simultaneously a sewerage rehabilitation concept was drafted. The rehabilitation programme with its focus on PE-80 piping is planned to last until 2011. The municipal sewerage system in Göttingen has been operated independently since 1997. It is one of the few sewage municipalities to be granted ISO 9001(1). The “Stadtentwässerung Göttingen” was certified in 2001. The annual investment in the sewerage system construction equals approximately EURO 16 mio.