8.3.

6 Laying Steel Pipes

8.3.6.1 General
Steel pipes shall be continuously welded and jointed with welded connections.
Pipe laying and jointing of steel pipes shall be in accordance with CP 2010: Part 2, Section 2.4,
except where modified or extended by the requirements of this Specification.
Pipes shall be handled and installed in such a way as to prevent damage to the internal lining and
external corrosion protection coatings. Unless otherwise approved by the Engineer pipes 600 mm
diameter and above shall be welded in the trench. Smaller diameter pipes may be welded above
ground in convenient lengths then lowered into the trench. The method of welding, handling,
installation and calculations of maximum degree of curvature so as not to exceed the yield
strength or adversely effect the pipe lining and coating shall be detailed in the Contractors
method statement.
Changes in direction may be achieved by curvature of the pipe provided the integrity of the
protective coating and lining is maintained, or by the use of bevel pipes and fittings. Pipes laid to
a curve shall be jointed welded initially without deflection and then "pulled" to achieve the
required curvature. Any pipe cutting or weld edge beveling required on site shall be conducted
by machining or mechanically guided thermal cutting.
The Contractor shall establish, before commencing pipelaying an identification system as
specified in Clause 8.2.1.5 such that all permanent materials are fully identified and traceable
against the mill test certificates. Each weld seam shall be identified against the identification
system with welder or welding operator, welding procedure and NDE procedure and reports.

8.3.6.2 Examination of Pipes Prior to Laying

Inspection and repair of the pipe shall be in accordance with CP 2010: Part 2, Section 2.4, except
where modified or extended by this Specification.
All surfaces to be buried in the ground shall be 100% holiday tested immediately prior to burial.
The method of holiday testing and the applied voltage shall be as specified by the manufacturer
of the specific coating, and the testing and repair shall meet the requirements of this
Specification.
8.3.6.3 Welding of Steel Pipes
(a) General
Before commencing welding the Contractor shall submit a detailed Procedure Qualification
Report meeting the requirements of API 1104. If any essential variables as defined in Clause 2.4
of API 1104 are changed the welding procedure shall be revised and resubmitted. Welder
qualification tests shall be in accordance with the Multiple Qualification procedure defined in
Clause 3.3 of API 1104. If a procedure is changed then all welders must re-qualify to the new
procedure. Each welder or welding operator qualified for production field welding shall be
assigned a unique identification number or symbol which shall be marked in indelible crayon
adjacent to each weld carried out and recorded against the NDE records for all welds.
Welding consumables shall be stored and handled in accordance with the manufacturers'
recommendations. Electrodes, filler wires and fluxes shall be stored in sealed, dirt-proof and
moisture-proof containers or bags. Filler wires withdrawn from the container and not used shall
be returned to their container and the container resealed. Flux containers, once opened, shall be
stored in a dry location at a temperature of at least 20C.
All surfaces to be welded shall be clean and dry and free from paint, oil, dirt, scale, oxides and
other materials detrimental to welding. Backing strips and/or consumable inserts shall not be
used.
Tack welds shall be carried out by qualified welders using approved electrodes and welded in
accordance with the appropriate approved welding procedure. Tack welds which are to be
incorporated into the main weld shall be ground and feathered and visually inspected for
soundness prior to welding the root pass.
Welding shall be carried out in a sequence which will minimise distortion. After each welding
pass, the surface of the deposit shall be cleaned of all flux and slag and visually inspected.
Arc strikes outside the weld bevel shall be avoided, and any which do occur outside the weld
bevel shall be removed by grinding and the area subjected to MT testing to ensure freedom from
cracks. The wall thickness after grinding shall be checked using an ultrasonic thickness meter to
ensure the minimum design thickness has been maintained.
Where pipe is manufactured from rolled and seam welded plate the longitudinal welds in
adjacent lengths of pipe shall be staggered by at least 150 mm or 15, whichever is the greater.
The proximity of adjacent butt welds, branch welds and attachment welds shall be as specified in
BS 2633.
(b) Welding Procedures and Qualifications
The Contractors method statement shall include the proposed detailed welding procedure
specifications for each material, diameter and thickness range and for all circumferential and
attachment welds, including flange, branch, pipe support welds etc. Only approved welding
procedures shall be used for production welding.
At a time convenient to the Employer and the Engineer prior to the commencement of
production welding, welding procedure qualification tests shall be carried out under the

surveillance of the Engineer and/or the Employer. The pipework used for procedure qualification
shall be the same size and grade as that used for production and from the same production route.
As far as possible the qualification pipe shall be from one of the same heats as used in
production. Completed welding procedure qualification test welds shall be subject to 100%
radiographic and 100% magnetic particle examination (MPI) examination in accordance with
Clause 8.3.6.5.
Mechanical testing shall be carried out by an approved test house, and shall be witnessed by the
Engineer and/or the Employer.
The approval of the welding procedure qualification certificates will be based on satisfactory
non-destructive examination and mechanical testing.
The Contractor shall submit all welding procedure qualification test reports to the Engineer for
review and approval prior to commencement of production welding. Documentation from
previously qualified welding procedures may be submitted to support a welding procedure
proposal, in which case if the Engineer considers that such documentation adequately proves the
suitability of the proposed welding procedure, requalification may not be required, or the number
of tests may be reduced, at the sole discretion of the Engineer.
All welders and welding operators shall be qualified by testing and radiographic examination,
and the qualification certificates submitted to the Engineer. Welder and welding operator
qualifications shall be valid for the duration of the works provided the Contractor can show that
the welder or welding operator has been continuously involved in work of a similar nature since
successful qualification. A break in continuity of more than three months shall require
requalification. When a welder or welding operator's work is judged unsatisfactory by the
Engineer, that welder or welding operator shall be removed from the work.
(c) Welding Steel Pipelines
Welds shall be made by the shielded metal arc (SMAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), gas
tungsten arc (GTAW) or submerged arc (SAW) welding processes. Other welding processes
shall only be used with prior Engineer approval.
All cut surfaces shall be finally prepared by grinding or machining to clean bright metal. After
the edges have been prepared for welding, visual examination shall confirm that the preparations
are smooth and uniform, free from tears, cracks, gouges and other discontinuities which might
affect the weld quality. Weld bevels containing defects shall be cut back and re-bevelled. Weld
bevels shall be checked to ensure correctness of profile.
Any pipe cutting or weld edge bevelling required on site shall be conducted by machining or
mechanically guided thermal cutting. Where internal pipe aligners are utilized they shall not be
removed until the root and hot passes have been completed. The use of permanent backing strips
or rings shall not be permitted. Temporary attachments shall be completely and carefully
removed, and hammering off is not acceptable. Where removal is by flame cutting, the cut shall
be made clear of the pipe work such that at least 1.5 mm of the temporary attachment is left for
final removal by grinding.
The weld bevels, and 25 mm minimum width adjacent to the bevel, shall be clean and free of
moisture, oxides or any other foreign matter, prior to the application of pre-heat or welding.
Butt weld alignment and the welding sequence shall satisfy the requirements of API 1104. The
longitudinal seam weld of each pipe shall be in the upper quadrant as laid (except for bends).
Adjacent pipes shall have an offset of not less than 10 between their respective seam welds.

Where internal pipe aligners are utilized they shall not be removed until the root and hot passes
have been completed.
Tack welds shall be a minimum of 50 mm long, performed with the same weld procedure as the
root run and by a welder qualified for that run.

root runs and hot passes shall be made without interruption other than for changing electrodes or
filler wires or to allow the welders to re-position themselves.
All welds shall be full penetration welds apart from the following:
socket welds (lap welded slip joints), which shall be used in pipe of nominal bore less than
700 mm
slip-on flanges, which shall be welded inside and outside with a continuous fillet weld, with
the toe of the pipe inside weld on the flange 1.5 mm from the flange face after welding to the
pipe;
pipe support attachment welds;
fillet welds, where specified, which shall be continuous and consist of a minimum of two runs
with staggered stops and starts.
Circumferential welds in pipelines shall be separated by the maximum possible distance.
Field welded connections shall not detrimental to the integrity of the coating systems. For pipes
700 mm diameter or greater the Contractor may adopt butt welds and complete the internal lining
after welding. For pipes less than 700 mm pipes shall be jointed with lap-welded slip joints.
(d) Weld Repairs
Minor surface imperfections may be removed by grinding, provided that the wall thickness is not
reduced locally by more than 12.5% of the nominal specified and the minimum wall thickness
for design purposes is maintained. The ground area shall be carefully dressed to ensure a smooth
transition with the surrounding surface and shall be subjected to NDE to ensure that the defects
have been removed.
Defects that cannot be removed by surface grinding shall be repaired by welding.
Defects shall be removed by arc-air gouging (Carbon (C) and Carbon-Manganese (C-Mn) steels
only), grinding or machining. When arc-air gouging is employed, preheating shall be applied to a
temperature 50C higher than that of the applicable qualified and approved welding procedure,
but the temperature shall not exceed the maximum interpass temperature.
After removal of the defect the excavation shall be ground to bright metal and NDE checked by
MT or PT, as appropriate, to ensure complete removal of the defect. The repair weld preparation
shall be smooth and free from rust, grease, oil or other extraneous material. The excavation shall
extend at least 25 mm beyond the extremities of the defect and shall have a smooth transition to
the parent metal.
Where an excavation results in a full through-thickness repair, the removal of the final 6 mm of
weld down to the root of the weld shall be carried out by grinding only.
In case it has been found necessary to completely cut out a weld, the new joint edges shall be
prepared as for the original weld and NDE checked by MT or PT, as appropriate, prior to rewelding.
All weld-repaired areas on pipe and pipe fittings shall be ground to a smooth contour with the
parent material or existing weld. Care shall be taken to ensure that overgrinding does not occur
and that the minimum wall thickness is maintained.
If any weld repairs are required after hydrostatic testing, the hydrostatic test shall be repeated.

The weld repaired area shall be subject to 100% visual inspection and 100% NDE by the same
techniques and to the same defect acceptance levels as specified under Clause 8.3.6.5 below for
the original examination.
8.3.6.4 Completion of Coating at Welded Joints on Steel Pipes
Buried joints shall be protected by one of the two following systems depending on the coating
system:
(i) for three-layer polyethylene coating joints shall be completed with heat shrink sleeves or a
proprietary solvent-free polyurethane field joint coating system;
(ii) for polyurethane coated pipe the joints shall be completed with a proprietary solvent-free
polyurethane field joint coating system.
(a) Heat-shrink Sleeves
(i) Application:
Heat-shrink sleeve shall comply with Clause 8.2.2.9. The sleeves shall be installed in accordance
with an appropriate method approved by the Engineer and in accordance with the
recommendations of the manufacturer.
The length of the sleeve shall be such as to cover the bare metal surface and to overlap the
permanent factory-applied coating for at least 100 mm at each side when the sleeve has been
installed and has completely shrunk. Any slippage shall not exceed 10 mm on each side.
Dirt, oil, grease, salts and other contaminants shall be removed and the area blast cleaned to SA
2 in accordance with ISO 8501-1. The surface profile of the blast cleaned steel substrate shall
be 40 m to 80 m. Blasting, in the form of a sweep blast, shall overlap onto the three-layer
coating for a minimum distance of 100 mm. Care shall be taken to ensure that the three-layer
coating is only lightly abraded and not damaged.
The surface shall be cleaned only when it is completely dry, that is, when it has a temperature
more than 3C above the dew point. The heating method adopted shall not leave any residue on
the metal surface.
The 2-pack epoxy primer shall be mixed in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and
shall be applied evenly over the steel surface by means of a trowel or applicator pad to a
minimum thickness of 150 m. The epoxy primer shall overlap onto the coating for a distance of
at least 100 mm.
The sleeve shall be pre-cut to size and wrapped around the field joint over the wet, warm epoxy
before it has cured. A special closure strip may be used to finish the joint. Closure and sleeve
shall be heated with a propane torch or equivalent, and the joint should then be shrunk to its final
shape using the torch and starting the heating from the centre. Application temperatures and the
method of shrinking the sleeve shall conform to the manufacturer's recommended application
procedure. The Contractor shall ensure that no damage is caused to the adjacent three-layer
coating.
(ii) Test and Inspection:
After blasting every joint shall be visually inspected for profile, freedom from rust and
cleanliness. One blasted weld joint in every 25 shall be checked for profile by the Testex Surface
Replica method. Joints that fail the tests shall be stripped and remade from bare metal.
The cured sleeves and tapes shall be 100% visually inspected for blisters, disbonding, poor
overlap or other damage:

the sleeve shall be free from cracks, bubbles, tears, or burns, traces of oxidation (bluish areas),
blow holes, ruptures, or any other defect;
the sleeve shall be smooth and there shall be no indications that foreign substances have
remained in the adhesive layer underneath;

the external edges of the sleeve shall perfectly adhere to the pipe coating and adhesive shall
appear around the whole circumference;
the slippage from an axial line of the closure, for wrap-around sleeves, shall not exceed 10
mm on each side;
the overlap of the sleeve beyond the joint shall be at least 100 mm at each
The sleeves shall be 100% holiday detected by a rolling coil holiday detector at 35 kV.
(iii) Site Qualifying Test:
Prior to making permanent joints the Contractor shall prepare three 'ring' samples using the
procedures as proposed for the permanent sleeves and conduct the following tests:
impact resistance to ASTM G-14;
penetration resistance to ASTM G-17;
cathodic disbondment to ASTM G-42;
peel strength to ASTM D-1000.
Results shall comply with the requirements of Clause 8.2.2.7.
(iv) Field Destructive Test:
For every 50 sleeves, or else on 2 sleeves for each working shift, whichever is the more frequent
criterion, the Contractor shall remove some portions of the sleeve in different areas (the closure
overlap and the sleeve body) in order to make sure that there are neither bubbles in the adhesive
(voids greater than 8 mm diameter) reaching the bare metal, nor any disbonded areas. Should
such defects be detected the whole backing shall be removed to determine their extent.
Should the sleeve tested not satisfy the acceptance criteria, the adjacent sleeve(s) shall be tested
both sides of the defective sleeve until acceptable sleeves are found.
(b) Polyurethane Field Joint System
The polyurethane field joint shall be a proprietary system applied in accordance with the
manufactures recommendations and shall meet the requirements of this Specification.
Blasting, in the form of a sweep blast, shall overlap onto the factory applied coating for a
minimum distance of 100 mm. Care shall be taken to ensure that the factory applied coating is
only lightly abraded and not damaged.
For butt welds the solvent free polyurethane shall be poured to a minimum thickness of 3 mm to
5 mm using a proprietary circumferential weld casting mould.
For fillet welded slip joints the polyurethane shall be applied as a liquid brush coat to a minimum
dft of 1250 microns.
Prior to making permanent joints the Contractor shall make three 'ring' samples using the
procedures as proposed for the permanent sleeves and conduct the following tests:
impact resistance to ASTM G-14;

penetration resistance to ASTM G-17;

cathodic disbondment to ASTM G-42;
peel strength to ASTM D-1000.
Test results shall comply with the requirements of Clause 8.2.2.7.
8.3.6.5 Completion of Internal Lining at Welded Joints
For steel pipes 700 mm diameter and larger the internal lining at welded circumferential shall be
completed after welding and non destructive examination of the joint.
The joint lining material shall be a polyurethane-epoxy complying with Clause 8.2.2.8 or
equivalent material which is compatible with the lining system.
Any protrusions in the weld area shall be removed by grinding and the area cleaned with a power
hand tool to achieve an angular pattern with a minimum depth profile of 65 microns.
The polyurethane shall be applied by brush or trowel to a minimum dft of 1250 microns.
8.3.6.6 Non-Destructive Examination (NDE)
The Contractors method statement shall include detailed NDE procedures covering as a
minimum the scope, techniques, equipment, materials, calibration procedures, locations for
inspection, extent of inspection and acceptance criteria. All inspection and NDE shall be carried
out in accordance with the approved method statement.
Final inspection shall be carried out after the removal of all slag, mill scale, dirt, weld spatter,
paint, oil or other foreign matter from the pipeline welds.
For C and C-Mn steels the NDE shall be carried out a minimum of 24 hours after completion of
welding. For heat-treated welds the NDE shall be carried out after heat treatment.
The minimum extent of NDE shall be as follows:
Design Pressure
Type of Weld
Radiography (RT) Magnetic Particle
or Ultrasonic (UT) (MT) or Dye
Penetrant (PT)
10 bar
Circumferential
10% minm [1]
50% minm [2]
welds
Branch welds full
penetration
Fillet welds
10 20 bar
Branch welds full
penetration
Fillet welds
> 20 bar
Branch welds full
penetration
Fillet welds

10% minm [1]

Circumferential
welds

50% minm [2]

50% minm [1]

50% minm [1]

Circumferential
welds

50% minm [2]

100%
100%
100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

Notes: [1] 10% minimum of each welder's production work (in accordance with BS 2633)
[2] 50% minimum means one complete weld for every two for each type or size of weld
NDE operators shall be qualified in accordance with EN 473.
All finished welds shall receive 100% visual inspection, and shall have been accepted visually
prior to other forms of NDE taking place. Acceptance criteria shall be as specified in BS 2633.
Records shall be maintained for welding and inspection in which all weld seams shall be
identified with a unique identifying number. The welder, welding procedure, heat treatment
procedure and NDE reports shall be identified for each weld in the weld log.