Over hills and dales: New drinking water pipeline in the Swiss mountains

Narrow mountain paths, rocky ground at 2,400 m above sea level on Muottas Muragl: An old drinking water pipeline for the hotel on the summit had to be renewed, and the impassable terrain in the Engadine presented a very special challenge. For the work in the Swiss mountains, only a trenchless solution came into question: The dynamic pipe bursting method with the GRUNDOCRACK - for which the route over a hill and dale, characterised by great differences in altitude, was no problem. Thus, the old pipes to a mountain lake 4.5 km away could finally be renewed without damaging the idyllic mountain landscape. 

It quickly became clear that only the dynamic pipe bursting method, which allows work to be carried out along flexible routes, was suitable for the renewal of the old grey cast iron pipeline from the 1920s. This is because the route did not run in a linear fashion from the pumping station 400 m below at the mountain lake, but over ridges and depressions along a mountain path that was only 50 cm wide in places. In addition, the capacity of the massively damaged old pipeline had to be increased. For the GRUNDOCRACK, both represented a manageable task. Under the extreme conditions, the drinking water pipeline on Muottas Muragl was renewed over 4.5 km in a record-breaking 3 months.