Grout Removal From Inside a 7″ Fiberglass Pipe

Location: New York

Obstruction Type: Grout
Pipe type: Fiberglass
Year: 2019
Region: New York

A client in New York contacted us to remove about 30 feet of grout from a 7-inch fiberglass, concrete-encased drainage pipe in a subway tunnel 200 feet below New York.

Several other contractors had attempted to remove the grout using non-robotic methods like chain flails, milling heads and air-driven grinding and cutting heads. All previous methods were ineffective or too slow, and were damaging the pipe — even completely destroying it in places.

To access the pipe, we drove a mile into the tunnel before turning around and backing up for another mile and a half to reach the access point. Our team pulled hoses to the actual work location 30 feet below the vehicle and 150 feet into a lower-level tunnel. Limited to just six-hour days, our team completed the complex and difficult job in just under 11 days.

“We tried to get this out of here for a year and a half, and PSM solved our problem in no time,” the construction general manager told us.