Moberly, MO's Beuth Road needed improvement. At its beginning, Beuth was a rural gravel road; as more people moved to that area of town, the road was simply covered in asphalt. Yet, as even more homes were built along that stretch of road, Beuth turned into a major arterial street, and its 20-ft.-wide strip of uncurbed asphalt became insufficient.

Product delivery and staging prior to construction

Installation of pipe and curb inlet structure

"It's a woodsy, hilly area," describes Moberly's Director of Community Development Tom Sanders. "Beuth had no storm sewers or gutter. More people were using the road, backing into driveways to turn around, and with the hills and turns, it was sometimes dangerous for residents to pull out of their drives. We cut out all the hillsides, held them back with Versa-Lok retaining walls, relocated some water lines, and made Beuth Road 30 feet wide, with curb and gutter, keeping water directed off the street. We turned a low-grade road into a top-notch arterial road."

What sets the Beuth Road project apart from other road improvements? Moberly, a small town located 30 mi. north of Columbia, MO, used Nyloplast-ADS PVC storm sewers instead of the traditional concrete. Why? "Because of its cost," Sanders explains. "Depending on the pipe size, it's cheaper than concrete. Smaller diameters are cheaper, bigger sizes may cost the same, larger sizes might be higher. But we wanted to try it, and were confident it would be satisfactory."

Thirty-one curb inlet structures were installed in the mile-long project, at a material cost of about $32,000. The project used 300 lin. ft. of 60-in. pipe, 869 ft. of 24-in. pipe, and 1,155 ft. of 18-in. pipe, plus 24- and 18-in. drop inlets.

In addition to the pipe materials' cost, the city saved money on installation costs. Since a PVC pipe weighs much less than a concrete pipe of comparable size, some heavy equipment and personnel were not needed.

Backfilling a trench at the Moberly road improvement project

Finished curb inlet structure

"There was a backhoe operator, a super, and a couple of laborers," says Lyn Heying, an engineer with MECO Engineering of Hannibal, MO, the firm that developed the project. "Emery Sapp and Sons, the contractor, had never done a complete ADS project; this was their first experience. The project went very quickly and well."

Heying wasn't surprised at Nyloplast-ADS's performance. "I don't spec concrete anymore, not in the past four to five years, because PVC is more cost-effective and easier to install–even cheaper when you figure labor and installation costs. For the Beuth Road project, the cost savings was significant enough for Moberly to go for PVC. I have used this system on several projects and am currently spec'ing it out for another."

Initially Moberly was concerned about using PVC because of the weight of Beuth Road's traffic. "Moberly hadn't used ADS very much; it was concerned about traffic loading," Heying adds. "We used an H-20 loading-rated pipe and put it back behind the curb, so there was no loading on it." Weight should become even less of a concern in the future; the company has added an H-25 loading to its product line.

"It's a dual wall pipe–corrugated on the outside, smooth on the inside–so the potential for clogging is significantly lower," Heying points out. "They are self-cleaning if laid at a grade of more than 1%."

"Stuff doesn't stick to the plastic," Sanders concurs. "Sediment will have to be caught at the end chamber since it will flow right through the pipes. Also, with the pH fluxes in water, concrete will break. If it's installed properly, placed in a good gravel base so it doesn't shift around, PVC won't break. The only thing PVC ‘doesn't like'–ultraviolet light–can't reach it underground."

Since the pipe was installed in a woodsy area, what about tree roots getting into the pipes, as they sometimes do in areas where pipes have been in place for years? "These contain rubber gaskets at the joints, which make them silt- and water-tight," Heying says. "It's very difficult for roots to get into PVC pipe joints."

"It went in much faster than we expected and requires less heavy equipment," Sanders concludes. "We've been pretty satisfied and plan to use Nyloplast-ADS again."

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