Boddingtons – the complete range in pipeline protection products
The Australian Pipeliner — October 2011
Boddingtons manufactures and distributes plastic warning tapes and extruded meshes for the protection, detection and warning of underground cable and pipelines for gas, fuel, electricity, water and fibre optic communication lines.
These products are sold into 60 different countries worldwide and give pipeline owners the peace of mind that their assets are safe and protected from third-party damage.
Boddingtons has a reputation for offering quality and affordable products as well as tailor-made solutions for their customers' requirements. The company has achieved ISO9001:2008 quality accreditation throughout the group, indicating its commitment to providing quality products and services.
Boddingtons' standard product range is manufactured to stock, allowing short lead times for supply to its customers. The standard stock range covers all major underground pipeline and cable applications.
WAVELAY and DETECTAMESH underground marker and warning tapes and meshes are manufactured from rot-resistant virgin polyethylene and polypropylene plastics. They have a stainless steel tracer wire embedded within the plastic product to ensure long life, strength and optimum detectability.
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Boddingtons can also supply these products custom-made to the customer’s specifications with special text messages.
Boddingtons supplies its range of PROTECTAMESH heavy-duty plastic meshes designed for pipeline protection from third-party rouge excavators, as well as the range of Rockshield pipe wrap meshes to prevent rock damage to the steel pipe coating system.
At the request of several pipeline operators, Rockshield HD was developed to offer an alternative to heavier pipeline protection pad systems. It is a heavy-duty diamond-structured polyethylene mesh designed to provide the maximum protection from rock impact. This means the Rockshield HD product is easier to handle at site and dramatically reduces labour costs due to increased installation speeds. The product can be supplied in rolls or pads custom-manufactured to the individual pipelines exact requirements.
Rockshield HD offers a higher compression strength, greater impact resistance and tensile strength while being half the weight of the PVC alternative.
Why use Rockshield HD?
Encountering rock on a pipeline project can slow construction and increase the cost of the pipeline. Any corrosion engineer will attest that the presence of rock is a concern due to potential damage to the pipe coating system during backfilling. Rockshield HD also offers protection from geological shifting and migration of rock particles once the pipeline is underground and in operation.
Boddingtons has achieved significant acceptance of its Rockshield HD mesh, supplying the product for major pipelines such as the Papua New Guinea LNG Project’s 850 km pipeline, and the 1,026 km Rockies Express (REX) East Pipeline project in the United States.
Rockies Express Pipeline
The REX Pipeline crosses eight states of the US and travels approximately 2,735 km. Beginning in Colorado and ending in eastern Ohio, the REX project is one of the largest natural gas pipelines constructed in North America over the last 25 years.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners; Sempra Pipelines & Storage, a unit of Sempra Energy; and ConocoPhillips jointly developed the REX Pipeline project.
The pipeline was constructed in three phases:
The 528 km REX-Entrega section across Colorado;
REX-West, which runs 1,147 km from Colorado to eastern Missouri; and,
The recently completed REX-East portion, which stretches from eastern Missouri to eastern Ohio.
The REX-West section was completed in early 2008, after receiving Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorisation in April 2007. REX-East finalised construction and was placed into service on 12 November 2009. Following the completion of REX-East, the pipeline has the capability to transport up to 1.8 Bcf/d of natural gas.
Each region along the 2,735 km pipeline route offered unique challenges for the construction of the pipeline. The majority of the route passed through mountainous terrain – starting in the Rocky Mountains and extending to the Appalachian Region – which brought with it significant technical challenges.
The REX-Entrega and REX-West pipeline routes cross the Rocky Mountains and much of the REX-East route also covers mountainous terrain, which presented the project’s crews with a variety of construction issues.
Image caption: Image 1: Boddingtons’ Rockshield product; Image 2: Rockshield being applied to a pipeline.