Underground Valve Installation 3

[Fellanti]

Does anyone know where to find detail drawings for installing buried gate valves using vertical corrugated steel pipe, a debris cap, and t-handle for above-ground operation?

I am familiar with this sort of configuration but simply have no design basis or reference drawings to provide maintenance for installation.

 

[zdas04]

Your description is as much detail as most underground valve installations ever get. I've put in a dozen and dealt with several hundred that other people put in and I've never seen a detailed drawing.

I know you didn't ask, but I would suggest that you re-think and then re-re-think going with valve cans. I don't know anyone who has lived with them that doesn't truly hate them. There are several reasons:
1. The can is a confined space so if you need to grease the valve bushing (or reconnect a T-handle) then it takes a confined space permit, at least two people, a lifting harness, and a lifting rig (NOT gin poles on a truck, there have been a couple of occurrences of people driving off in the truck with the cable still attached to the now-dead worker).
2. The can provides very minimal protection against freezing. People mitigate this by filling the can with material like cotton-seed hulls. The insulation properties are usually adequate, but getting them out of the way to grease a valve or reattach a t-handle is truly a pain.
3. The cans provide a great place for rodents to nest. If you don't live somewhere with rodent-borne pathogens (here in New Mexico the deer mice can transmit Hantavirus which is a hemorrhagic fever with very low survivability), then you still have to worry about snakes going in after the mice. The first time I opened a valve can and saw a rattlesnake it ruined my whole day (I was sure it was at least 25 ft long and 2 ft diameter, one of the guys killed it with a shovel and it was not quite that big).
4. The cans are really great places for kids to play fort. Often they can get in, but are not strong enough to open the lid to exit. They can die in there before they are found.
5. The damn things fill up with water and the mud can take months to dry out. I sent a guy into one once (in knee-high rubber boots, tyvek coveralls, and forced air), it took him 45 minutes to connect remote grease connections to all three valves and when he was done he found that he had sunk past the tops of his boots and they had filled with mud; it took an hour to get him out and we never recovered the steel-toed rubber boots.

There is no job I've ever found that can't be done better without a valve can. For gas lines it is always better to do a dog leg. For water lines you can use a remote-operator valve that buries the valve (you have to be willing to bury flanges, which some people have a hard time with)and puts the handle, packing, and bushing at the surface.

David

 

[BigInch]

You can't find a detail like that because nobody does it. Why in the heck do you want to put a perfectly good valve inside a CMP??? You can bury them directly into the ground!

Let your acquaintances be many, but your advisors one in a thousand’ ... Book of Ecclesiasticus

 

[Fellanti]

How would you bury a gate valve and still be able to use it without digging it up again?

 

[zdas04]

But then, why would you use a gate valve? The last one I put in for an onshore, low pressure gas gathering system got me a phone call from the operator. He said (and I quote) "Next time that %&$%$& thing has to be operated, you will operate it or I will burn your house down". I don't know if he was serious, but he was certainly angry.

Do a search on extended-stem valve and you'll find a number of manufacturers that make ball, gate, and even globe valves for direct burial. These valves have the packing and stem bushing 3-4 ft above the valve. The bigger ones are weld-in, smaller are a mix of weld-in and bolt-in. There are a couple of pictures on page 6 of Link to PBV Brochure

David

 

[BigInch]

Now we're getting somewhere.

Buy your valve with a stem extension to raise the handle or operator above ground surface level. You can also get them with lube fittings, double block and bleed fittings all for underground op.

Let your acquaintances be many, but your advisors one in a thousand’ ... Book of Ecclesiasticus