CHAPPES, FRANCE

Client: Communes de Chappes
Country: France
Length of Pipe: 3000 m
No. of Valves: 50
Volume of Flow: 3 litres/second
Specialist Feature: River crossing

Situated approximately 150km south east of Paris, the village of Chappes is near the town of Troyes in the beautiful Champagne region. The village was without a mains sewerage system and relied on septic tanks for the disposal of sewage. Communes de Chappes made the decision that a sewerage system should be installed to serve the village in order to avoid the pollution of the River Seine and to eliminate other environmental contamination caused by inefficient or dysfunctional septic tanks.

The nearby village of Fouchere was also in the process of installing a sewerage system and had chosen Iseki Redivac’s technology as the most cost-effective solution. After consultation with Iseki Redivac and comparing the installation cost of vacuum and gravity sewers, the vacuum way was chosen as the most suitable option. Not only was the vacuum system easier and cheaper to install but the remarkable capabilities of the technology meant that only one pumping station was required.

The River Seine runs through the middle of the village and conventional sewers would require at least two main pump stations and many lift stations to serve the village. Iseki Redivac’s engineers were able to design the sewer network so that the sewer main was able to cross the river by attaching the protected pipe to the underside of the bridge. Such was the effectiveness of the design and quality of construction that the completed vacuum sewerage system has proved very reliable and has exceeded the initial performance parameters.

Vacuum Sewer Main crossing the river

Vacuum Sewer attached to the bridge abutment

Trench with vacuum pipe, valve chamber and monitoring cable