In October of 2000, with the help of one of the world's largest airplanes, Price Brothers Company airlifted seven special sections of 78-inch PCCP that were urgently needed to complete the installation of a major outfall in Cardiff, Wales, UK.

The 7800-foot outfall project is part of the $260-million waste water treatment facility scheduled to begin serving more than 800,000 residents in the Cardiff region by 2002. Air shipping the seven pieces of 78-inch diffuser pipe enabled the project's marine contractor, Van Oord ACZ, to complete the outfall in November--before winter storms in the Bristol Channel could delay the installation for months.

Van Oord's partners in the Cardiff treatment plant project are Dwr Cymru Welsh Water and Hyder Consulting which is designing and managing the project. Price Brothers was chosen to supply PCCP for this major outfall project for its ability to work closely with the Van Oord team. Overcoming the rough sea and weather conditions required the use of specialized installation equipment developed by Van Oord and special pipe and joint systems from Price Brothers. PCCP was also able to comply with the project's 50-year-design-life requirement.

The urgency resulted when an ocean freighter carrying Price Brothers pipe to the project was caught in a severe hurricane at sea. Most of the pipe weathered the storm, but one pipe broke loose and tossed against several others for hours during the storm. As soon as the ship arrived in Wales on October 5, 2000, Price Brothers began to rebuild the seven damaged pieces within two weeks--placing on our Bakewell, Tennessee, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi plants an "almost" impossible production schedule. Price Brothers had the pipe built, crated and ready to fly on October 24. It arrived safely in Wales on October 25, eleven hours after takeoff.