Radney Plumbing Inc. of Valdosta, Ga., recently was tapped by the city of Valdosta to install a new lift station as part of upgrades the city is making to its underground utility infrastructure.

Though the lift station was installed in a fairly uncongested spot near Tucked Road where open cut might have been sufficient for a shoring option, Radney chose a more unconventional shoring system, a Universal Slide Rail System manufactured by Efficiency Production and supplied by Professional Shoring & Supply.

“It’s one of the best Slide Rail Systems that we’ve used, and we’ve put in Slide Rail from other vendors at least eight or nine times,” said company owner Tommy Radney.” “Professional Shoring’s Slide Rail was a lot better than other vendors. Better quality,” he said.

“This was the first time we’ve worked with Tommy Faulk at Pro Shoring, but he was very knowledgeable of the system, and helpful getting it installed.”

Radney indicated that they had no problems installing or removing the system.

Efficiency’s Universal Slide Rail is a component shoring system comprised of steel panels (similar to trench shield sidewalls) and vertical steel posts. The system can be used in a variety of configurations, such as small four-sided pits; large unobstructed working pits as big as 50 by 50 ft. (15 by 15 m) with Efficiency’s ClearSpan System; or in a linear Multi-Bay configuration to install length of pipe more than 40 ft. (12 m).

“Safety was our number one consideration for choosing Slide Rail, especially needing to go 16 feet deep,” said Scott Askew, Radney’s project superintendent. “And we were extremely happy with how quickly the system was installed and removed.”

Radney had the system installed in just a half a day.

Slide Rail is installed simultaneously as the trench or pit is excavated by sliding the panels into integrated rails on the posts — an outside slotted rail first, then an open-face rail on the inside — then pushing the panels and posts incrementally down to grade as the pit is dug; a process commonly referred to as a “dig and push” system.

Efficiency Production is the only Slide Rail manufacturer to offer an open-face rail design on its Slide Rail posts, according to the manufacturer.

The 24 ft. (7.3 m) tall, 10 ft. (3 m) diameter precast lift station sat on a 12 ft. (3.6 m) square pedestal, placed in a 16 ft. (4.8 m) square four-sided pit configured Slide Rail System with a final grade of 16 ft. deep.

Radney did face some tough ground conditions, needing to excavate in very wet soil, which had water running into the pit that needed to be controlled with pumps. It used a Cat 324 excavator with 2 cu. yd. (1.5 cu m) bucket, plus a Cat 420E rubber-tire backhoe to place and remove the slide rail system.

Founded in 1965, Radney Plumbing is a full service plumbing company offering everything from faucet repairs to complete underground utilities installation for development of subdivisions and commercial property.

For more information, visit www.radney.com.

For more information on Professional Shoring and Supply, call 888/777- 8307.

James McRay is the Director of Marketing & Media for Efficiency Production Inc. He can be reached at 800/552-8800; [email protected].

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