Our team was involved in the Tibitoc-Casablanca Aqueduct modernization project, which aimed to improve the drinking water quality for the residents of Bogota. We had the opportunity to test out our brand-new ADB32 during this project, which involved creating small connections to the main Tibitoc line, a pressurized water line that supplies water to 3 to 4 million people in Bogota.
The primary challenge of this project was that the 80-year-old Tibitoc line needed to be replaced without cutting off the water supply to residents. To achieve this, Petra subcontracted with a leading Bogota general contractor to create bypasses to temporarily connect the neighborhoods to existing smaller water lines. Although this resulted in lower service water pressure, it allowed the general contractor to temporarily stop the main line and then restore main water service through the main pipe.
Our team executed multiple crossings to establish bypass connections from one area to another, enabling the temporary suspension of sections of the main Tibitoc-Casablanca pipeline. Petra LATAM was engaged to use our Auger Boring Module in our Petra multi-tool to build four out of five bypasses we were subcontracted to connect to the main line. For the 5th bypass, Petra swapped modes to the ADB mode when we encountered sand.
Petra played a crucial role in connecting one neighborhood to another using two of our multi-modes of our Petra Platform on one job. If we had used conventional methods we would have had to swap in entire machines versus modular components. The ability to rapidly swap between boring modules saved time and money when compared with conventional methods.
Here’s a video showing our rapid swapping between modules in the Tibitoc-Casablanca Aqueduct project:
This successful project demonstrated our team's ability to rapidly adapt and deliver unique solutions in complex infrastructure projects while ensuring minimal disruption to the lives of Bogota residents.
Video 2: Here’s a video of us prepping to use our Auger Boring Module to excavate sedimentary rock and hard-as-rock clay that is too soft for our jet boring module but is too hard for many conventional methods.
