Proceedings of the 2012 9th International Pipeline Conference IPC2012 September 24-28, 2012, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

IPC2012-90196
HIGH PRESSURE GAS PIPELINE INSTALLATION INSIDE A LONG LENGTH AND SMALL CROSS-SECTION MOUNTAIN TUNNEL
Yuya SUMIKURA Osaka Gas Co.Ltd. Osaka,JAPAN

KEYWORDS Mountain tunneling, Internal filling ,Watertight wall ABSTRACT The gas pipeline called Mie-Shiga Pipeline (60km total length, 610mm diameter, 7MPa maximum pressure, grade L450 (X65)) is under joint construction between Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. and Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. This pipeline is planned to start supplying gas in 2014. Since the main part of

our construction area is in a mountainous area called Suzuka Mountains, the mountain tunneling method is adopted in part of the mountainous area (about 7.5km in length) for gas pipeline installation to shorten the construction period. This paper discusses the design concept and the highly efficient technique for installing pipeline inside a long length and small crosssection mountain tunnel, as well as the application of an internal watertight wall, which is a task specific to the mountain tunnel.

OsakaGas Pipelines
Existing Under construction

Aichi Pref.

Mie-Shiga
Kyoto Pref. Hyogo Pref.

Line

Shiga Pref.

Yokkaichi thermal power plant

Himeji LNG Terminal Senboku LNG Terminals (I, II) Mie Pref. Osaka Nara Pref.

Wakayama Pref.

Fig. 1 High-pressure gas pipeline system by Osaka Gas

Copyright 2012 by ASME

INTRODUCTION The main role of gas pipeline in Japan is to transport LNG over a relatively short distance from a LNG receiving terminal to a consumption area. Some terminals are located in the metropolitan areas and pipelines are also installed along major arterial roads. The total length of gas pipeline in Japan is about 3,000km, which is only 1/120 of the United States, 1/9 of France and 1/2 of England, indicating that Japans development is falling behind greatly in the global society. In the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, the importance of natural gas is surging in Japan, and expansion of the pipeline network is expected to advance even further in the future. Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. has two LNG receiving terminals, in Himeji and Senboku, and supplies natural gas to about 7 million households mainly in the Osaka metropolitan area. The total length of pipeline network owned by our company is about 60,000km, of which about 620km is the main highpressure pipeline. (refer to Figure 1) THE ENVIRONMENT OF PIPELINE INSTALLATION IN JAPAN The environment of pipeline installation in Japan differs greatly from that overseas. In other countries, a long-length pipeline extending over a few hundred kilometers is installed mainly from a gas field to a consumption area, in which rightof-way for the pipeline is set in a large private property, and the spread method is adopted to allow extremely speedy installation of 2 to 3km per day. In Japan, while it is legal to install pipeline in a private property, it is virtually impossible to own the property for the pipeline in reality for various reasons such as closely packed houses and complicated ownership caused by meticulously divided properties. Therefore, buried pipeline construction under public roadways is the main system (refer to Figure 2). Further, blocking roads completely is prohibited in principle, and construction is carried out by occupying only one side of the road and allowing vehicles to use the other side with the aid of traffic controllers. Since the length of occupied zone is limited to about 150m, the work needs to be performed in a narrow space. Piping efficiency greatly depends on efficiency of the civil engineering work that comprises 70 to 80% of the total work. In case of 600A, one pipe per day (normally 12m per day) is the limit. In the same manner, lines such as water, telephone and electrical cables are also buried under roadways. If any part of the pipeline is damaged by such third-party construction, a shutdown is required. To avoid inconveniences to our customers, pipelines are planned to be installed circularly and connect between two LNG receiving terminals.

MIE-SHIGA PIPELINE PLAN The Kyoto-Shiga district, located in the northern part of our supply area (refer to Figure 1), has a one-way supply pipeline for a length of 80km, which poses the risk of not being able to supply gas in case a shutdown is required at any part of the pipeline. To solve this problem, the Mie-Shiga Pipeline has been planned to connect the Taga Regulator Station, the terminal point of the one-way supply pipeline, and the Yokkaichi natural gas thermal power plant owned by Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. Establishing the system to receive gas supply from the Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. provides an extra supply line and allows stable service to the Kyoto-Shiga district. The construction of Mie-Shiga Pipeline started in 2005 as a joint business between Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. and our company and is scheduled to start service in January 2014. This project is unique in Japan, with a gas company and electrical company jointly installing the pipeline. Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. has undertaken 23km of the total length of 60km. Due to the fact that about 15km of this project scope is in a mountainous area called Suzuka Mountains, the mountain tunneling method is being adopted in part of the mountainous area for gas pipe installation. (refer to Figure 3)

Fig. 2 The pipe buried under roadway in the open cut method

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Taga Regulator Station

Mountain tunneling method (7.5km) Fujiwara Metering Station

Mountainous area (15km)

Mie-Shiga Pipeline Osaka gas Co., Ltd. (23km) Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. (37km) ( Existing ) Isolation valves

Yokkaichi natural gas thermal power plant

high safety factor has been introduced in the design of gas piping materials. The design pressure for Mie-Shiga Pipeline is 7MPa, and the material used is of 610mm diameter, 15.1mm pipe wall thickness and grade API 5L L450 (X65). Due to the fact that it is extremely difficult to re-excavate the gas pipes that is installed in the tunnel, maintenance-free is the ultimate goal. To prevent corrosion, the gas pipe is used polyethylene pipe coating which is outstanding for endurance and insulation. The external surface is coated with polyethylene film which thickness is more than 3mm, and the external surface of jointing is coated in the field by heat shrinkable tube made of polyethylene. After the pipeline installation in the tunnel, it is planned to fill the void inside the tunnel with a filling material to reduce the effects of external disturbances by making the peripheral environment of the pipe equivalent to the underground environment.

Fig. 3 Mie-Shiga Pipeline plan

SUMMARY OF THE MOUNTAIN TUNNELING DESIGN The mountain tunnel is 7507m in total length. The maximum depth is 436m, and the minimum is 19m where the tunnel passes under the river. Uphill grade is constructed (2%) to make it easy for seepage treatment. The standard cross-section inside the mountain tunnel is shown in Figure 4. The cross-section has been minimized for cost reduction within the scope where it cannot affect the piping construction work, and the inner diameter is 2,000mm (2,320mm outer diameter). The earth pressure on the tunnel is designed to be supported by ring supports installed inside the tunnel, and the structure prevents the gas pipe from being affected by the external pressure. Internal wall of the tunnel is protected with wooden sheet piles and treated with sprayed mortar. In principle, the loosening earth pressure due to the arching effect of the ground has been taken into consideration for the earth pressure on the tunnel. Based on the Japanese Standard for Mountain Tunneling (Japan Society of Civil Engineers), the loosened height is set to be twice the outer diameter of the tunnel. After tunneling is complete, the gas pipe of outer diameter 610mm is inserted and field welding is conducted in the tunnel. In Japan, pipelines are often installed in urban areas and so a

Fig. 4 The standard cross-section inside the mountain tunnel

Depth 436m Depth 19m

Greenstone Limestone Chert

granite Granite Fault-crushing belts

Height(m)

800 500 600 400 400 300 200 200 500 1000 1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

5500

6000

6500

7000

7500

Distance(m)

Fig. 5 Vertical alignment of the mountain tunnel and soil profile

Copyright 2012 by ASME

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MOUNTAIN TUNNEL The area around the tunnel is inside the Suzuka National Park, in which major construction works are restricted. For this construction work, an evaluation committee has been established based on administrative guidance and the impact of the construction work on the natural environment is assessed as the work progresses. In particular, the surrounding area of the construction district is the nesting place for raptors such as the mountain hawk-eagle and the goshawk, and so a condition prohibiting construction between January and July has been imposed from the viewpoint of their protection. As for the geological features of the tunnel passage, the starting point is the sedimentary layer, and the remaining route is mainly greenstone, granite porphyry, limestone, chert, mudstone and a mix of these stones with many fault-crushing belts (refer to Figure 5). The conventional method of blasting excavation is typical for mountain tunneling, but mechanical excavation using Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) has been selected to improve excavation efficiency. After starting this construction work in August 2006, the base was constructed and then tunnel excavation commenced in November 2006. TBM with a full shield providing complete enclosure is used to handle the brittle ground. (refer to Figure 6).

the greenstone fault in the high ground cover in particular has fragmented sandy ground so that TBM is pressurized and bound by the surrounding collapsed ground. To solve this problem, the upper space of the TBM is widened manually to release the earth pressure (refer to Figure 8). This phenomenon occurred four times, and expansion was made at each occurrence. As a result, it required five months to break through the fault belt (about 100m). The tunnel excavation was carried out for about 40 months and was completed in March 2010.

Fig. 7 The mountain tunnel

Support

Fig. 6 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)

TBM

2350

Widened space

Widened space 2320

TBM has enabled us to achieve a maximum progress rate of 430m per month. The cutter head at the tip of the machine is pressed against the bedrock using a jack, and its rotation sinitiate cutting. Excavated soil is carried toward the back of TBM by the conveyor belt. Ring supports provide the primary source of support, but segments are used to prevent ground collapse at the brittle areas such as fault-crushing belts. Due to the existence of many fault-crushing belts along the planned route, large quantities of seepage of up to four tons per minute arise from areas like bedrock cracks. In this construction work, two treatment plants with a capacity of 200 tons per hour are used for turbid water purification. In addition,

TBM 3900

Fig. 8 The widened upper space of the TBM

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HIGH-QUALITY AND EFFICIENT PIPING IN THE NARROW AND SMALL CROSS-SECTION This pipeline construction takes place in an extremely difficult environment where pipes of diameter 610mm are installed in the tunnel of inner diameter 2m. However, progress of the work is not influenced by the excavation and backfilling but depends on pipeline installation efficiency, indicating that streamlining the pipeline installation is directly connected to cost reduction on the pipeline construction. In response to demand from the gas company, the welding company has studied and developed a new technology that can achieve highquality and efficient piping installation. The field welding and inspection conditions are shown in Figure 9. Pipes of length 12m are transported into the tunnel on the rail provided in the tunnel, and are welded individually. The automatic GMAW has been introduced to ensure stable and high-quality welding that is not affected by the ability of the welders, and the narrow 30-degree V-groove has been adopted to shorten the welding time. After all the welding joints are inspected by X-ray to ensure high quality, the field coating is applied on all the field joints. The coating is done with automatic coating equipment, which enables safe construction without using a gas burner to heat and shrink the material in the pit and also prevents air pockets that can lead to corrosion. The three processes of welding, inspection and coating are conducted concurrently to improve work efficiency. By putting efforts on the above processes, three field weldings (36m) per day has been achieved while maintaining a high level of quality that has no defects requiring welding repair and cutting in all welding joints. INTERNAL FILLING OF THE TUNNEL The benefits of internal filling of the tunnel are: no special inspection and maintenance are required due to no detonation space in the tunnel; the degree of corrosion for the gas pipe can be maintained at the same level with other buried pipelines; stress concentration on the gas pipe is reduced due to the ability to support elasticity; and no consideration is required for temperature stress due to small temperature changes. The pipeline installation and filling works are planned to take place concurrently in the narrow tunnel for shortening the construction period and so a cement-bentonite mixture with high fluidity has been adopted for internal filling. This enables pumping of the mixture prepared at the pithead yard into the pit and requires no field compaction, which avoids burdening the piping work and facilitates concurrent working.
Automatic field coating X-ray inspection

The strength of cement-bentonite is 0.2 to 0.5N/mm2 (4th week strength) after hardening, which not only allows reexcavation but is also not strong enough to cause excessive stresses on the gas pipe. It also has permeability that allows gas leak detection. In light of the corrosion protection property, specific electric resistance after hardening is 2,000 to 10,000/cm, holding the conductivity of protective current equivalent to that of sand. Further, the cement components are not likely to be separated due to the small cement-bentonite particles, and the quality of the material has been confirmed in an experiment in which it has been pumped over the long distance of 4,000m.

Fig. 10 Automatic welding work in tunnel

To the tunnel entrance

Fig. 9 The piping conditions in the mountain tunnel

Copyright 2012 by ASME

CONSTRUCTION OF THE WATERTIGHT WALL As described above, four tons per minute of water seeped out in the mountain tunnel. The construction work was carried out by handling the seepage with high-spec purification equipment, but impact on water resources in the neighborhood was a concern due to the situation that water is pulled into the pit, which could cause lowered levels of ground water in the surrounding area. Therefore, a method to stop the seepage inside the pit after pipe installation is being studied. Even though the mountain tunnel is planned to be filled, complete stoppage of seepage is not feasible by just providing the filling material due to its permeability. Therefore, a watertight wall is provided near both entrances of the tunnel to stop seepage inside the tunnel, and the gas pipe is designed to pass through the wall without impairing the watertight effect (refer to Figure 10). When the seepage in the pit is terminated by the watertight wall, water pressure gets applied inside the mountain tunnel. It is difficult to accurately understand the intensity because it depends on levels of the ground water and the permeability of the ground. For this project, water pressure is designed to be 4MPa at maximum based on the height of the earth covering and the preliminary soil investigation. Firm ground is chosen to locate the watertight wall at about 200m from both the pits. This is because if the wall is constructed in the brittle ground, water may penetrate through the ground and get into the back side of the watertight wall, causing the collapse of its watertight capability. With the maximum water pressure at 4MPa, the huge force is applied on the watertight wall. Therefore, the cross-section where the watertight wall is constructed has been widened, and the plug concrete has been structured. This is designed to resist the applied water pressure with the bearing strength of the widened area and the friction force at the bottom of the concrete. Curtain grouting is also applied in the surrounding ground to prevent the seepage from reaching the back side of the watertight wall. The gas pipe needs to pass through the watertight wall without impairing its watertight capability. In order to secure the ability, a sleeve pipe is placed in the hole and the space between the sleeve pipe and gas pipe is filled with epoxy resin mortar. Further, if the gas pipe expanded and contracted in the axial direction due to internal temperature changes, the adherence between the gas pipe and epoxy resin mortar would be diminished and the watertight capability would be degraded. Therefore, a pipe with a protrusion in the center is used to fix the pipe and watertight wall. The axial force applied on the fixed parts due to temperature changes is determined by conducting stress analysis using the elastic support model that applies the ground elastic force on the right angle of the pipe axis (no elastic force on the pipe axis). The variation in the temperature is plusminus 10 degrees centigrade. An axial force applied on the fixed parts is designed to be supported entirely on the protrusion, and its projection is set at 60mm, which secures the watertight capability even if the gas pipe expands and contracts.

Watertight wall
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Watertight wall

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Watertight wall Water pressure Sleeve pipe

Bearing strength of the widened area

Epoxy resin mortar Gas pipe

Mountain tunnel Friction force

Fig. 11 Summary of the water tight wall

300mR Watertight wall

Tunnel entrance 4364m

50mR 50mR 659m 7692m

Watertight wall
1436m

Tunnel entrance

Fig. 12 The elastic support model of stress analysis

Fig. 13 The gas pipe passing through the watertight wall

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CONCLUSION This paper discusses the pipeline installation method used for a long length and small cross-section mountain tunnel of Mie-Shiga Pipeline. The inner diameter of the tunnel is 2,000mm. Further, the loosened-earth pressure applied on the tunnel is designed to be supported by ring supports instead of by the gas pipe itself. To ensure high quality of the pipeline within the narrow tunnel during the piping construction, automatic welding and automatic field coating are adopted for all the welding joints. In addition, the processes of welding, inspection and coating are conducted concurrently to reduce the construction period. As a result, three field weldings (36m) per day is achieved. Internal filling of the tunnel is planned after piping installation to fill up the detonation space in the tunnel, make the peripheral environment of the pipe equivalent to the underground environment, and reduce the influence of external disturbances such as earthquakes and temperature changes due to the ability to support elasticity. To shorten the construction period, the cement material is transported by pumping. In consideration of the long length of the tunnel, a cementbentonite material with high fluidity and anti-washout characteristics has been developed, which enables pumping up to 4,000m. A great quantity of seepage, up to four tons per minute, gushes in the mountain tunnel, and so the watertight wall is built near both entrances of the tunnel to block the seepage and prevent the ground water level lowering. The gas pipe is designed to pass through the wall without impairing its watertight capability.

Copyright 2012 by ASME