42” Diameter Water Main

The City of Bossier City hired Manchac to prepare a water distribution system model to identify problem areas in their distribution system. As a result, a project was identified to upsize some old 20” diameter mains to 42” diameter. The City’s WTP had recently been upgraded to 50 MGD but the plant cannot deliver high flows throughout the distribution system due to restrictions and/or bottlenecks. Manchac worked with the City to establish the route of the new 42” main. Since this is such a large main, maximum effort was made to minimize the impact on businesses and homeowners. The selected route of the main is shown in the photo above. The project includes a railroad crossing, two major highway crossings and threading the needle in several locations. Construction techniques included open cut, jack and bore and horizontal directional drilling (HDD). Horizontal directional drilling or HDD, is a steerable trenchless method of installing underground pipe in a shallow or deep arc along a prescribed bore path by using a surface-launched drilling rig, with minimal impact on the surrounding area.