New Water main across and drainage ditch

wheresthedog

Member
Horticulture
Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience of having a new water supply put in from the mains which enter your field or property across a drainage ditch? Our mains pipe is parallel to the road, in the grass verge which is parallel to our drainage ditch which we'll need to cross.

We could cross the ditch via a culvert but that wouldn't give us the minimum 750mm the utility company expects. :unsure:

Many thanks in advance!
 

zero

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorkshire coast
Go deep and put marker tape or poly bags ect below the bottom of the ditch but well above your water pipe as a reminder of where it is when ditch cleaning as things often aren't quite where you remember when you go back with a digger.!
 
How deep is your ditch and what’s your soil type? The expensive option is to get it directional drilled and lined under the ditch. Next option is to impact mole under ditch again. Cheapest option is to dig track out through ditch and drop a concrete pipe or steel pipe in and recover. Old man put water pipe to farm through ditch in late sixties in a steel pipe, I found the remains of it when cleaning ditch and the water pipe which wasn’t where he said it was so important to mark point it crosses against some reference point or years later someone could have a bad day.
Digging track through would be easier with coffer dam and pump to move water from one side to other.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
The water main (2" asbestos) used to go over my ditches in two places. Laid during WWII and only re-routed a few years ago. The pipe was passed through a larger pipe suspended at both ends on the bank, so insulated by air. The pipe burst many times but never as I recall where it went over the ditch. It would be even more secure if it was a plastic pipe as most are today. The asbestos broke because of water pressure (in hollow) and age, not temperature which goes below minus 10 here. I'd ask members of the team who lay them, not the "experts" in the office. I'd post a photo except I've ripped them out. The pipes now make a jump for horses!
 

wheresthedog

Member
Horticulture
Thanks all. Really helpful and valuable advice.

If we wanted to make a new entrance into the field at a similar time, can anyone think of reasons why digging a shallow trench across the ditch, placing the mains pipe in ducting in the ditch (below level of the ditch bottom) and building a piped culvert over the top.

Culvert will need to take vehicular traffic.

Frost insulation of the pipe in a covered shallow trench with only culvert pipe above is the only issue i can think of?
 

wheresthedog

Member
Horticulture
Thanks all. Really helpful and valuable advice.

If we wanted to make a new entrance into the field at a similar time, can anyone think of reasons why digging a shallow trench across the ditch, placing the mains pipe in ducting in the ditch (below level of the ditch bottom) and building a piped culvert over the top.

Culvert will need to take vehicular traffic.

Frost insulation of the pipe in a covered shallow trench with only culvert pipe above is the only issue i can think of?
(sort of what Sharpy suggested)
 

wheresthedog

Member
Horticulture
Go deep under the ditch and put the pipe in some ducting to protect it in the future.
Good point! Im thinking about drainage at the mo too and I've mixed them up in my mind without thinking much about it. No reason not to go 750mm deep under the ditch and then back up again with pressurised mains pipe!
 

wheresthedog

Member
Horticulture
How deep is your ditch and what’s your soil type? The expensive option is to get it directional drilled and lined under the ditch. Next option is to impact mole under ditch again. Cheapest option is to dig track out through ditch and drop a concrete pipe or steel pipe in and recover. Old man put water pipe to farm through ditch in late sixties in a steel pipe, I found the remains of it when cleaning ditch and the water pipe which wasn’t where he said it was so important to mark point it crosses against some reference point or years later someone could have a bad day.
Digging track through would be easier with coffer dam and pump to move water from one side to other.
Coffer sounds good - in this instance would that mean digging a second, deeper trench across the ditch upstream and pumping over the new mains trench whilst work was being done?
 
Coffer sounds good - in this instance would that mean digging a second, deeper trench across the ditch upstream and pumping over the new mains trench whilst work was being done?
All depends on the type of soil your are digging through (infiltration rate), depth of trench and where the water table is sitting at.
A sump upstream of the coffer would be good to ensure pump always remains primed during digging process.
Have built a few coffers over the years which consisted of fence posts and potato box sticks for various activities. You don't need to have them water tight as long as leakage rate is low enough for a pump to keep up with you will be fine, I used a 1" outlet SIP submersible pump to keep a pit dry enough to work on in a field that was ponded.
I recently put a water pipe through field with a bog area which had about 1.5 meters of head from a ditch the other side of it which then was piped underground (ditch fed dam downstream back in 1900s and pipe too small for ditch flows in winter) , dug a relief trench to main trench then pumped that out in order to get trench bottom sanded, pipe layed and sanded then cover in. Biggest issue had was ponded water on surface flowed in to trench and debris (grass, leaves etc) kept blocking pump suction. 3" pump used and can pump about a cube a minute if i recall correctly, hired it for 25 quid a day and better to have extra capacity.
It wasn't the most enjoyable of tasks but can be done just need to be prepared.
 

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