Monday, January 23, 2017

Digging deep: hidden infrastructure



When mentioning infrastructure most people will think of roads and rails. They are forgetting that there is a hidden world of infrastructure that lies beneath our streets. This hidden infrastructure is equally important for the well-functioning city and consists of sewage pipes, electrical cables, water pipes and communication cables such as fibre optic cables. The rules are that this subterranean infrastructure is built in the location indicated on the permit. Alas it often happens that contractors place them where they can get them in easiest resulting in broken cables and destroyed pipes when years later another contractor starts digging...



Sewage pipes used to collect both clean rain water and the dirty waste water from homes and businesses. Now this system is changed in separate pipes for each to better manage flooding and spend less on water treatment. This means two smaller pipes instead of one larger pipe. Drinking water (in the middle) comes in via separate pipes with these typical home connections in the standard household width.

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