www.cpaa.asn.au

CONCRETE PIPEMEETS HUMAN NEEDS

FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS

John J. Duffy

Concrete Pipe Associationof Australasia

Concrete pipe ~Hb

meets human needsfor more than

years

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PIPE

Perhaps the grandest ancestor of modernconcrete pipe was the Roman aqueduct.This section came from a system builtaround 80 AD, reaching 56 miles fromCologne to Fiffel, Germany. The slightlyhydraulic cement used in the ancient proj­ect was called Trass, consisting chiefly ofavolcanic mud found along the Rhine Riverbetween Cologne and Coblenz. The wallson this aqueduct section are 15 in. thick,and the section itselfweighs 9,000 pounds.

By John J. Duffy

The growth of the precast con­crete pipe industry over the

past 100 years has followed theadvance of technology. The in­creased need and concern for wastetreatment, water supply, irriga­tion, and drainage for railroads,highways, and airports has re­sulted in the construction of moreand larger pipelines.

Historically, cities have tendedto develop around waterways. Theancient Britons located Lon­donium, now the city ofLondon, atthe confluence of the ThamesRiver and Fleet Street Creek.They wanted to be on tidewaterand adjacent to the sparklingclean drinking water of the creek.As the encampment grew into atown, the water became so pol­luted, the residents had to go else­where for drinking water. As Lon­donium grew into a city, FleetStreet Creek was covered over andconverted into a combined sani­tary and storm sewer.

Sewage disposal methods didnot improve markedly until theearly 1840s when the first modernsewer was built in Hamburg, Ger­many. It was modern in the sensethat houses were connected to asewer system, and sanitary sewerswere separate from storm sewers.

In 1848, the Metropolitan Com­mission of Sewers in London re­ported to Parliament that a needexisted for an extensive sewer sys­tem and other sanitary improve­ments. The cholera epidemics thatravaged England around 1854

clearly demonstrated the need forimprovements in sewage disposal.However, actual construction of adesigned sewer system did not be­gin until 1859.

The initial conception of engi­neered sewer systems in Americahas been credited to Julius W.Adams who designed the sewers ofBrooklyn, N.Y., in 1857. His de­signs were used as a model foryears. The largest sewer at thistime was built in Boston, Mass., in1876. This was the first interceptorsewer system in America autho­rized by a state legislature. It wasdesigned and constructed byJoseph P. Davis who became aninternationally famous specialistin sewer system design.

Many early sewers in Americawere built in small towns andfinanced with local funds. Becauseof this, and the lack of accuraterecords, details of the earHersewerage projects are unknown.The oldest recorded concrete pipesanitary sewer installation was in1842 at Mohawk, N.Y. Mohawk isa small town located in the centralregion of New York. The pipe wasof bell and spigot design, 28 in. inlength. Inside diameter was 6 in.and wall thicknesses were approx-imately 1 in. .

The 6-in. pipe was installed byGeneral Francis Spinner to conveydomestic sewage from his home tothe Erie Canal that ran behind theSpinner mansion. Spinner led alife of dedicated and innovativepublic service. He was a HerkimerCounty sheriff, a general in part ofthe state militia, a U.S. congress­man, and Treasurer of the UnitedStates during the administrations

In 1907, a small group of con­crete drain tile manufacturers metin Ames, Iowa, to discuss theirproducts. Before that time, theyhad no real means of exchangingideas, no uniform product, no spe­cifications, no research, and nopromotion. They knew that, collec­tively, they could accomplish whatthey could not do individually,and, to that end, the AmericanConcrete Pipe Association wasformed.

As early as 1908, a year after theassociation was formed, A. N. Tal­bot of the University of Illinoisstarted his research on the struc­tural aspects of concrete pipe;shortly thereafter, his colleague,Anson Martson, began his re­search at Iowa State College on theproblems ofloads on undergroundconduits. Professor Dalton G.Miller at the University ofMinne­sota started work on the reactionof acid soils, sodium, and magne­sium sulphates on concrete in the19OOs. Later came research on thehydraulics of concrete pipe and,still later, the answers to the puz­zle ofhydrogen sulfide generation.The research goes on today, car­ried out, with the encouragementand support ofthe association, by ahost of prominent engineers andscientists.

Since 1970, the association hasprovided investigations of the du­rability aspects and properties ofprecast concrete pipe, and investi­gated the efficiency of internal en­ergy dissipation in various sizesand configurations in concretepipe by using test models that,when later verified by full-scaletesting, resulted in a designmethod. Studies into the feasibilityof impregnating precast concretepipe with polymers and the use ofpolymers as concrete binder havebeen carried out. During the en­ergy crisis of the mid-'70s, ACPAinvestigated the energy contentof concrete pipe and all competi­tive materials to obtain a compar­ative analysis of energy require-

of Presidents Lincoln, Johnson,and Grant. The pipe was excavatedin 1982 for the 75th anniversary ofthe American Concrete Pipe Asso­ciation and found to be in excellentcondition after 140 years of serv­ice.

ments, as well as a means to evalu­ate methods of reducing energyrequirements in concrete pipe.

More than $2 million has beeninvested over the past 10 years inresearch to design pipe for theinstalled condition. The programwill make available a new andsimplified design approach, SoilPipe Interaction Design and Anal­ysis (SPIDA). Preparations arenow under way to complete SPIDAfor presentation to the engineer­ing community. When available,SPIDA will allow more efficientand economic installation ofburied concrete pipe than previ­ously was possible.

No review of the history of theconcrete pipe industry would becomplete without a discussion ofthe work with the American Soci­ety ofTesting and Materials, todayknown simply as ASTM. The his­tory of concrete pipe standardsbegan virtually with the foundingof ASTM in 1898. By 1904, eighttechnical committees had been or­ganized, and, in 1904, six morewere formed. One of these, Com­mittee C-4 on Clay and Cement­Concrete Sewer Pipe, was the fore­runner of Committee C-13 onConcrete Pipe that was formallyorganized in 1930 and acquiredjurisdiction over standards C14,C75, and C76. Today, CommitteeC-13's membership exceeds 100and has jurisdiction over 23 stan­dards encompassing every possi­ble concrete pipe product. ACPAstaff members have been involvedin the voluntary consensus stan­dard system from the start.

In the association's 75 years, theindustry has grown. Quality hasimproved vastly, sizes and lengthshave increased, the miles of con­crete pipe produced, whether mea­sured by tons, feet, or dollars haveincreased tremendously. Annualproduction in recent years has ex­ceeded 13 million tons. More than600 plants are operated by ACPAmembers in the United States,Canada, and 43 other countries.

Many of the concrete pipelinesinstalled in New England duringthe latter half of the 19th centuryare in use today. In Chelsea, Mass.,another early concrete pipe sewerwas installed in 1869 and contin­ues to function satisfactorily. In

1868, a concrete pipe sanitarysewer was installed in St. Louis,Mo. An examination, in 1962,showed the line to be in excellentcondition, and it remained in serv­ice. A concrete pipeline installedas a combined sewer in St. Paul,Minn., in 1875 is serving satisfac­torily more than a century later.Between 1875 and 1888, the cityinstalled more than 94,000 linearft. of concrete pipe for combinedsewers. These pipelines, varyingin size from 9 in. circular to 21 x 28in. oval, have provided 100 years ofservice.

The demand for sanitary andstorm sewers continued into theearly decades of the 20th century.By 1915, most major cities hadrelatively extensive sanitarysewer systems. Many large cities,as well as smaller ones, used con­crete pipe for sewer systems.

A few roads within the largecities had drainage ditches andwere sometimes surfaced withgravel, stone, or shell. The early19th century roads were improvedonly to the extent of havingstumps and boulders removed.Many were impassable forwheeled vehicles in winter or dur­ing spring thaws. Travelerscrossed small streams by fordingand large ones by ferry.

After 1820, the ideas of theScotsman John L. McAdam revolu­ti<mized American road building.McAdam was responsible for thegood roads around Bristol, En­gland. He asserted that the nativesoil alone could support the traffic,and the only function of the roadwas to protect the base soil fromwater and abrasion. Macadamroads were 6-10 in. thick and madeof angular broken stones, packedby traffic into a dense, interlock­ing mass. The first American roadbuilt according to McAdam's prin­ciple was the Boonsborough toHagerstown Turnpike in Mary­land, completed in 1822.

A changing era in transporta­tion began with the shift from theneed for local roads and streets to amore general, comprehensive con­nected system. The Office of RoadInquiry was formed in the U.S.Department of Agriculture in1893 to deal with local road prob­lems. The increase in the numberof automobiles between 1905 and1918, from 50,000 to 6.2 million,

The history of concrete pipe in­cludes (clockwise from above left):tamping machines working inde-pendently and fed by control mixers r,and conveying systems; equipment 'used to make socket-type sewer pipe(1939); the Turk-McKenzie machinemaking 36 in. standard socket-typesewer pipe (1939); the sand-bearingtest, precursor of the three-edgebearing test (Sacramento, 1927); the69-in. concrete pipe, for whichforms and reinforcement cages areshown here being stripped and setfor the Salt Lake Aqueduct.

indicated the direction oftranspor­tation development. Following 10years of debate, the Road Act of1916 established the concept of anational system of highways. TheU.S. Office ofPublic Roads, formedin 1916, became the U.S. Bureau ofPublic Roads in 1919, but re­mained in the Department of Ag­riculture until 1939.

Local governments also wereorganizing highway departments.The growth ofroads and highwaysresulted in a rapid increase in theuse of concrete pipe. While theneeds of the 19th century centeredon public health and agriculture,the emphasis of the 20th centurywas to be on transportation needs.The demand for surfaced roads,reasonable grades, and drainagebecame essential considerationsin highway design. By 1930, allstates were using concrete pipe inhighway construction.

The growth of the concrete pipeindustry was influenced greatly byrelated technical and market de­velopments. Modem design andconstruction of sewers and cul­verts, and the design and produc­tion of concrete pipe, have evolvedfrom the basic work ofthe past 150years. Perhaps the most signifi­cant product change came withthe introduction of reinforced con­crete pipe. Reinforcement first wasused in France in 1896, and theconcept was brought to America in1905. The first reinforced concreteculvert pipe was made in 1905 byC. Frank Wilson of Wilcon Con­crete Co., Red Oak, Iowa; he placedcircular rings of reinforcementinto the forms as the dry mix wastamped by hand.

The basic theory for modempipeline design was developed overthe latter half of the 19th century.Of principal interest were studiesto determine head loss from pipewall roughness. These studiesformed the basis for determiningpipe size.

During the first three decades ofthe 20th centur~ researchers atIowa State University developedand tested a theory for estimatingloads on buried pipe. The originalconcept was advanced by Marston­Talbot, and the theory was devel­oped by Marston and Andersonand published in 1913. Marstonwas joined by M.G. Spangler and

W. J. Schlick who continued thewOrk on evaluation ofdesign loads.In 1930, Marston published TheTheory of External Loads onClosed Conduits in the Light oftheLatest Experiments; his text pre­sents the theory in its presentform. During this same period, thethree-edge bearing test was devel­oped as a method for evaluatingthe strength of rigid pipe. OtherIowa reports include Schlick'stests of pipe on concrete cradlesand Spangler's classic report onthe supporting strength of rigidpipe culverts that still serves asthe principal design theory.

Developments in productionmethods during this period alsowere dramatic. Beginning the cen­tury with a hand-made product,the industry was catapulted bydemand into automation and massproduction techniques. Between1925 and 1930, the production ofconcrete pipe doubled from 1 to 2million tpy.

Shortly after 1900 in the North­west, the first tamper machineswere developed independently byThompson, Hammond, Bullen,and Ash. These early tampers hada stationary inner form with anouter revolving form. Dry mix con­crete was tamped mechanicallyinto the space between the formsby high speed wooden tampersticks. In Iowa in 1905, ZeidlerandMcCracken, working indepen­dently, made the first packerheadconcrete pipe manufacturing ma­chines. At about the same time,Ernest Bent of the Western Con­crete Pipe Co., pioneered thepackerhead process on the WestCoast. The packerhead processuses a stationary outside form.Dry mix is packed against theform by a revolving packerheadextended from a shaft that travelsupward within the form. In 1906,the Quinn Wire and Iron Works ofBoone, Iowa, started making buttend concrete drain and culvertpipe using steel tamper stickswith both inner and outer formsrevolving.

After 1906, almost all concretepipe over 24 in. in diameter, as wellas some as small as 18 in., weremanufactured with reinforce­ment. In 1918 in Portland, Ore.,The Tuerck-MacKenzie Co. pi­oneered the use ofdouble tampers,

making it possible to tamp on bothsides ofthe reinforcement. Shortlythereafte~ several other tampermachines were developed by Mar­tin Iron Works in Los Angeles,Calif., Sherman in Knoxville,'Thnn., and Universal Company ofColumbus, Ohio.

Before 1920, Gray inThomasville, N.C., and Bullen inPortland, Ore., working indepen­dently, added legs to the lowerpallet ring so that when the out­side forms were stripped, theforms would drop and break thebond between the fresh concreteand the form.

In 1920, Hume of Melbourne,Australia, toured America to es­tablish interest in his centrifugalmethod of making concrete pipe.His method had been in use since1912 in plants in Australia, NewZealand, India, Southeast Asia,and Peru. Plants subsequentlywere established in Los Angeles,Detroit, Boston, and Dallas. In1922, Mohr-Buchanan centrifugalplants were built in Montreal andLos Angeles by the United Con­crete Pipe Co. The Mohr-Bu­chanan process was a centrifugalmethod, developed in Scotland,that uses a form coated on theinside with a layer of wax. In thecuring process, the wax melted,running off to be used again, andthe one-piece outside form wasstripped easily.

In 1922, the Lock Joint Pipe Co.,using a process differing from theHume concept, built and operatedseveral centrifugal machines inthe eastern United States.

The growth of the concrete pipeindustry has been spectacularsince the 1930s. After the depres­sion years and World War II, an­nual production doubled to 4 mil­lion tons by 1950. During each ofthe two succeeding decades, pro­duction increased by approx­imately 3 million tons, reaching aproduction level of more than 10million tons annually by 1970. Bythe middle of the 1970s, the an­nual market value of productionexceeded $1 billion.

The use ofconcrete pipe for sani­tary and storm sewers and for cul­verts under highways and rail­roads had been steadily growingduring the years before 1930. Dur­ing the 1930s, wide acceptance de-

veloped and more than 2 milliontons of concrete pipe were pro­duced. New developments in high­ways during the 1930s resulted inincreased use of concrete pipe. Ex­tensive use was made of concretepipe on the 775 miles of the PanAmerican highway from Laredo,Tex., to Mexico City. Also con­structed was the first of the mod­ern freeways, the PennsylvaniaTurnpike, that used more than 55miles of concrete pipe ranging indiameter from 12-72 in.

The period from 1945-1965 wasdominated by the needs of the au­tomobile; the main thrust was theconstruction of the InterstateHighway System. In 1956, the ini­tiation of the $4 billion per yearinvestment produced an irreversi­ble change both in transportationand in daily life.

The development and construc­tion of major airport facilities be­gan during the 1930s. Between1930 and 1940, almost 400 miles of4-in. to 66-in. diameter concretepipe were used in army, navy, andmunicipal airports.

The major challenge to the con­crete pipe industry was to produce

Reprint from October 1983CONCRETE magazine

a uniform, high quality productwhile increasing the productionrate to meet demand. It was recog­nized that the future of the indus­try depended upon products beingmanufactured as economically aspossible without loss of quality.Research was continued as ameans of assuring confidence inconcrete pipe and its increaseduse. This research was sponsoredby producers, consumers, univer­sities, technical societies, theAmerican Concrete Pipe Associa­tion, and joint cooperative studiesinvolving two or more of thesegroups.

Modern man cannot live in cit­ies without adequate sanitarysewers, storm sewers, and cul­verts. Concrete pipe is a strong,durable, economical commoditythat makes our modern sewer sys­tems possible. Most of the Inter­state Highway System, manymiles of primary and secondaryhighways, long stretches of rail­road lines, and airports could notexist without drainage. •Mr. Duffy is ACPA's vice presidentof marketing services. Photos arefrom the association's archives.