Repairing a leaking poly flowline inside a casing

How the job went

1. Day 1: daylight the area. Our hydrovac truck opened up the area around the casing so the crew could see every line in the ground before a bucket went in.
2. Day 2: find the leak, south side. We hydrovac'd the leak and dug out the poly lines on the south side of the casing.
3. Day 3: north side. Same on the north side: hydrovac first, then dug out a section with the backhoe.
4. Day 4: pull and replace. We exposed the poly lines, cut the line, pulled the old pipe out of the casing, ran new pipe through it and spliced the south side.
5. Day 5: splice and test. We spliced the north side, turned the well back on and left the ends open to check for leaks.
6. Final day: backfill and clean up. Once it held, we backfilled and cleaned up the site.

Why it went this way

• Leaks inside a casing can't be dug to directly. The line has to come out one end and the new pipe go back in.
• Daylighting with the hydrovac first meant the backhoe never worked blind around the other lines at the crossing.
• One call covered all of it: the hydrovac, the dig crews, the poly work and the cleanup.

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