OT/installing water line

We had one galvanized underground waterline left around here. A 3/4 inch running under a classA highway to the cattle across the road.Everything else had been replaced with plastic over the years. The darned thing started leaking in the dead of winter last year right next to the road in the ditch. Misserable thing lays between 2 large phone lines and a fiber optic cable. The other side of the road,it runs under the coral fence to a waterer. We patched it up last year,but decided we'd better replace it before things freeze up this year. My brother and I both figured we'd better get it inside another pipe somehow incase we need to do it again. Darned thing had to run 58 feet just to get under the road,plus the distance under the fiber optic to get it back into the yard. I had the bright idea of washing a 2 inch black plactic water pipe through with water pressure by running it over the old 3/4 galvanized. Well,we found out the clay under the road was hard as stone. We'd gone about 18 feet in an hour and a half. Seemed like a waste to me,the water that we were pumping out of the hole back into the ditch. I asked my brother what he thought about using the trash pump hooked to the 2 inch and using THAT volume and pressure to wash it through. We hooked up an adapter and WOW! That was progress! Still took close to 2 hours,but it worked. We ran a new 3/4 plastic line through the 2 inch all the way from near the coral,back across the road beyond the phone lines and fiber optic,so even if it does leak,it won't come up through the road. Just thought the trash pump idea might help somebody else out sometime.

That's a neat idea. I'm gonna have to remember this for the next time I have to bury a pipe in a sensitive area. From what I understand you don't want to cut a fiber optic unless you have deep pockets. Jim

Yea,I've been told that if you hit one,just leave the checkbook and the deed to the farm on the kitchen table and walk away.

I used a 3/4 in pipe with a plug in the end and a 1/8 inch hole drilled in the end of it to put a water line from the basement to a ditch outside the foundiation. Used the pipe as a battering ram and kept adding pipe the further I got out. The result was a automatic drain for the basement ( no more sump pump) It is amazing what water pressure will erode. Glad you got the project completed. Bud

Bit late now, but google "Bor-zit" for a tool that does that.

I've seen those. We just wanted to replace an existing line,so it wasn't necessary to make a whole new hole. Just needed to get the old pipe out and a new one in,preferably inside a larger pipe this time.

I have used a reducer with a hose barb screwed into it on the larger side. Then screwed the reducer on the old pipe. Thus using it to pull the new line in as I pulled the old one out. We used a backhoe or an excavator for the pulling, with a chain hooked to the old pipe. The reducer will make room for the hose clamp to follow. Hvae done this to pull 50-75 feet of line.
Had an old well guy from IA tell me about using a cable pulled through the old pipe to pull a new larger line through.

If it's a state hiway now you will probley have to bore under the road have a steel sleve installed to run your new line thru .thats the way ILL is doing now around here .

That was our original plan,but it was a good thing we didn't try it. The old pipe was so far gone,it broke right off at a coupler when we were pulling it up out of the hole. By flushing the dirt away from it with the larger pipe,all we had to do was pull it out of the big one by hand.