Project Description:

SPEC provides engineering and design for the installation of pipelines using horizontal directional drilling when other methods are not feasible or practical. Factors which often favor HDD installation include avoiding environmentally sensitive areas, avoiding excessively deep bore bits, and crossing lengths in excess of 300 to 500 feet.

We have completed the design for HDD’s ranging from 300 feet to over 5000 feet in length and for diameters ranging from 3 inches to 36 inches. We have also completed various multi-bundled crossings with as many as nine pipelines and/or conduits. Our design and engineering team has many years of experience with trenchless construction techniques and we regularly provide our clients with recommendations on the best construction methods to fit a particular project need.

Our designs have crossed highly congested urban areas, major waterways (Sacramento River and the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles), Caltrans controlled highways, railroads, and environmentally sensitive areas. Many of our successfully completed projects encountered construction issues such as limited work and string out areas, strict controls on frac-out, and areas where geotechnical issues were the primary project issue.

On many of these projects, the SPEC design team developed unique solutions to overcome particular obstacles or restrictions imposed by environmental conditions.
A representative project example is described below.

In 2006 SPEC completed the preliminary planning and detailed design of a multi-service utility bundle. The bundle included two 20-inch HDPE water transmission lines, one 16-inch steel natural gas line and two 6-inch HDPE conduits to be installed by means of horizontal directional drilling (HDD) under the Back Channel in the Port of Long Beach. The directional drill work is only part of a longer term channel deepening and recentering project that requires the relocation of City of Long Beach utilities as an initial step. The total length of the bundle, as installed, is more than 1,750 feet; the drill bit diameter was 52 inches, and the effective diameter of the utility­ bundle was 41-1/2 inches. Construction was completed in 2007.

Since then, SPEC Services has completed numerous other single conductor and multi-bundled pipeline/conduit crossings using HDD, many in highly developed areas and/or within the Ports of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach.