Twelve foot diameter jacking pipe now available

National Concrete Pipe Company is currently manufacturing the first  144" jacking pipe in the Chicagoland area. The pipe will be installed in the Mount Prospect area in July of 1999.

Concrete lined with plastic provides solid, leak-proof pipes

Plastic pipe in sewer construction is more susceptible than concrete  to collapsing, leaking, and fire hazards. "Plastic pipe is only as good as the support around it," says John Esposito, president of National Concrete Pipe in Franklin Park, IL. "Concrete pipe doesn't depend on the soil around it."

Plastic does have advantages, though. It resists hydrogen sulfide and other caustic chemicals, which are beginning to appear in more sewer lines due to industrial concentration and increased populations. These chemicals can destroy concrete in time.

National Concrete Pipe makes a product that's been made on the West Coast for some time -- a concrete sewer pipe with a plastic liner cast integrally with the concrete. " You get the flow coefficients and the corrosion resistance of the plastic and the structural integrity of  the concrete for the best of both worlds," says Esposito.

This technology was developed in the mid-1940's but wasn't as critically needed until now. The polyethylene plastic, manufactured by Ameron, comes in a cylinder that's about 1/8 inch thick. "It's like a big sock we slide over the inside form that's standing upright," says Esposito. "We put reinforcing over the plastic and then slip over the outside form. Next, we pour super plasticized 7,000 psi concrete into the mold.

The mechanical T - lock on the plastic's face holds the concrete to it. You cannot separate the plastic from the concrete."  As the pipe is laid in the ground the ends of the plastic protruding the ends of the pipe are overlapped tightly to create a continuous line of pipe-- there are no joints. These extended plastic edges are heat treat  welded into place at the job site. "We did about 12,000 feet of pipe in Addison, IL. in 1992. The contractor put in eight to ten lengths of 42- and 36- inch diameter pipe a day," says Esposito. "In 1993 we finished about 8,000 feet of 72- inch diameter pipe for another Chicago suburb, Wilmette. Its liner only covered 180 degrees of the pipe. Every body  is very happy with the product."  The EPA is asking many sanitary districts to spend less on sewerage treatment plants and more on tighter sewers so that plants aren't treating 60% storm water and 40% sewage water. " We sell the engineer on the idea of what our sewer pipes can do as a final product: not having to worry about leaky sewers and the EPA," says Esposito. " We've also made a video of how the pipe is produced and how the Addison job was installed.

" Plastic lined pipe is about 20% higher in cost over standard concrete pipe. That's not out of line. It's a real insurance policy for the   engineers to make sure they do not have a leaky sewer."

Contact Information

National Concrete Pipe Company's operation facility is staffed 18 hours each day, 6 days per week. In addition, the office is in operation from 5am until 5pm, 5 days per week. National Concrete Pipe Company can be reached via E-mail, web site, and Fax 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.

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