Trenchless Pipeline Rehabilitation for Houston Oil & Gas and Energy Infrastructure

Cured-in-place pipe rehabilitates gravity-fed lines supporting gathering and terminal facilities, drainage and collection systems that were never under pressure to begin with. A resin-saturated liner is inserted into the existing pipe using air inversion, then cured in place with heat applied through burners, forming a new structural pipe inside the old one without excavating across a right-of-way.

The Masterliner CIPP products used on Hill Services projects meet ASTM F1216 and F1743, the governing standards for cured-in-place pipe design and installation. Ed Ward, our lead technician, is Masterliner-certified across the full four-inch to ninety-six-inch diameter range and has personally installed more than 500,000 linear feet.

CIPP is not manufactured for pressure service. In midstream and energy infrastructure, where most lines run under pressure, that limits CIPP to the smaller share of the system that runs gravity flow. It is the wrong method for a transmission or gathering line and the right one for the drainage system next to it.

Primus is a flexible pressure pipe system built around a fabric of aramid fibers, the same fiber family as Kevlar, layered between an inner and outer wall of polyethylene or thermoplastic polyurethane. That fabric layer lets the liner carry the full operating pressure on its own once installed, rather than depending on adhesion to the host pipe. Manufacturer testing rates the system for a minimum fifty-year service life.

Installation needs only two access pits, one at each end of the section being rehabilitated, not a continuous trench across a pipeline right-of-way. The old pipe is inspected by camera and mechanically cleaned, then the liner, delivered folded flat, is winched through using a pulling head rated to more than 22,000 pounds of force. Once in place, it is pressurized with air to round out into its final shape, connectors are pressed on at each end, and the section is pressure tested before it goes back into service.

Individual sections can run up to 8,200 feet in a single continuous pull, which cuts down the number of connection points on a long pipeline run, a meaningful advantage on gathering and transmission lines that can run for miles. Primus is certified for drinking water and gas service, rated for operating pressure above 1,000 PSI depending on pipe size. Hill Services is the only contractor certified to install it for industrial oil and gas applications in the United States. Our longest single pull to date is 4,600 feet, in Texas.

Plural hot-heated epoxy is a 100 percent solids coating system, spray-applied from a heated trailer that can reach up to 300 feet of hose run. It applies directly to concrete without sandblasting, and it can go on wet surfaces, which matters at a terminal or pump station where taking a structure fully out of service is rarely simple.

The formulation is matched to the exposure rather than sold as one universal product. Current systems handle a pH range of roughly 2 to 13, and Hill Services’ applications have tested to a 2,500 psi pull test, holding up against the moisture and product exposure common at storage and transfer facilities.

Spray-applied epoxy accounts for an estimated 15 to 25 percent of manhole and structure rehabilitation work nationally by volume, and that share climbs toward half of all specifications in severe corrosion environments, exactly the condition storage tanks and pump stations produce over time.

Ed Ward, who leads this work at Hill Services, calls it the Cadillac of the industry. It costs more to install than a cementitious coating. It also holds up longer in the conditions midstream infrastructure actually produces.