Electric Welded Steel Pipe Lines

Abstract

Within the last decade electric welding of water, gas and oil steel pipes has greatly increased. This increase has been due largely to the saving of the steel required in other types of pipe for lap and joint efficiency. The East Bay Municipal Utility District has been using both the electric welded and the oxy-acetylene gas processes in its pipe lines for the past six years. Generally speaking, no difficulty has been found in using these processes in the manufacture of small pipes out of thin plates, but care has been found necessary in the manufacture of large pipes out of thick plates. In building its Mokelumne pipe line as part of its Mokelumne River Project, the District constructed 82.7 miles of steel pipe line across the San Joaquin River Valley between the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Coast Range. The Mokelumne pipe line is a part of the East Bay Aqueduct, which comprises in addition thereto three tunnels 8 feet in diameter aggregating 5.7 miles in length and one tunnel and a reinforced concrete pipe each 9 feet in diameter, aggregating 7 miles in length. The East Bay Aqueduct is a part of the water supply system constructed by the District for nine cities lying on the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay. On account of the diameter, length, plate thickness, and operating head of