Design and construction of underwater pipelines crossings

Abstract

The new territories exploration for housing construction and production facilities within the country and the increase in the export of hydrocarbons require the constant development and improvement of pipeline transport. There are often cases when the need for the pipeline network crossing by various obstacles is recognized as the only possible design solution and economically reasonable, among the most difficult of which there are water bodies. Natural and waste water, oil and petroleum products, and gas are transported by underwater pipelines crossings. Aiming at optimizing the design and construction of underwater pipeline crossings requires constant monitoring of the technologies, equipment, and materials offered by the modern market. The research methods were based on the review of current regulatory and technical documentation, modern scientific and periodicals, and security documents. A special feature of the underwater pipelines crossings design is needed to predict the channel processes for the entire estimated period of their use. Underwater crossings construction is made by the trench and trenchless methods. The latter ones, which are currently the most popular, imply the following main types: horizontal directional drilling, directional drilling, tunneling, microtunneling. The construction technology choice is determined by the topographical features of the water body bottom, its hydrological characteristics, the geology of the construction site, the required length, the diameter of the pipeline network, and the features of the surrounding area as a whole. The results of the review study may be of interest for the specialists in the field of pipeline transport.