Rostov Region's Most Problematic Water Pipeline Is Glass and Turkish
The water pipeline was installed with numerous errors and violations during construction.
Regular water supply problems in Gukovo are linked to a series of wrong decisions made by authorities during the design and construction of the second line of the Gukovo-Gundorovsky water pipeline over 10 years ago. This was stated by Andrey Koshkarev, deputy director of URSV, at the Interfax press center in Rostov.
According to him, the difficulty in fixing the recent accident was that the rupture occurred at a depth of 9 meters. But the pipeline should not have been that deep.
«Due to design features and installation errors, the pipeline subsided to this depth. There are subsiding, highly watered soils there, so the glass did not hold up and deformed. There were many violations during installation and design. But it is what it is, and we use what we have,» said Koshkarev.
Where did the glass come from? The fact is that in Soviet times, the pipeline consisted of two 1000-millimeter pipes. In 2009, a major overhaul began, and it was decided to lay two 900-millimeter plastic pipes.
«But someone decided that one glass pipeline (fiberglass. — Ed.) would be enough. And in the project, they replaced the main and backup pipes with one pipeline, essentially a »glass one,«» said Koshkarev.
According to him, the pipeline at the site of the current accident had been «stretching» for about 5-6 years, with slow destruction occurring.
«In the end, it didn»t hold up and burst at this spot. They made an iron insert; there was no other option there. The pipeline itself was manufactured in Turkey, and there are no spare parts in Russia,« explained Koshkarev.
Vladimir Revenko, deputy governor of Rostov Region, partly defends the «glass» pipeline. According to him, it is, in principle, eternal; glass doesn«t rust and practically doesn»t decay. But only if such a pipeline is laid according to all rules and technologies.
However, the main problem is that there is only one. As Koshkarev says, since its launch, over 400 accidents have occurred on this pipeline. Moreover, it has never undergone maintenance.
«This is impossible because it is always in operation. You can»t change the engine and wheels on a moving car. Therefore, since its construction, the pipeline has never been serviced,« said the deputy director of URSV.
There are problems with it in summer as well. According to Revenko, in July, when Gukovo was without water for five days, essentially the same thing happened as now, but due to voltage fluctuations, not temperatures.
«When there was a water shortage in Gukovo and Zverevo in summer, we installed meters and clearly saw which sections had losses. They can be found, but for that, the pipeline needs to be drained and a robot sent in. And there is no duplicate,» said the deputy governor.
According to him, water supply in Gukovo is planned to be restored to normal by Monday. A major overhaul of the Gukovo-Gundorovsky water pipeline, as reported by 161.RU, is planned to begin this year.
