# HAR 6-77-155 Uprating: steel pipelines to a pressure that will produce a hoop stress less **Citation:** HAR 6-77-155 **Type / status:** regulation / current **Agency:** Hawaii Public Utilities Commission **Effective:** 1994-09-03 **Published:** 1994-04-15 than thirty percent of SMYS: plastic, cast iron, and ductile iron pipelines. (a) Unless the requirements of this section have been met, no person may subject: (1) A segment of steel pipeline to an operating pressure that will produce a hoop stress less than thirty percent of SMYS and that is above t ## Document text than thirty percent of SMYS: plastic, cast iron, and ductile iron pipelines. (a) Unless the requirements of this section have been met, no person may subject: (1) A segment of steel pipeline to an operating pressure that will produce a hoop stress less than thirty percent of SMYS and that is above the previously established maximum allowable operating pressure; or (2) A plastic, cast iron, or ductile iron pipeline segment to an operating pressure that is above the previously established maximum allowable operating pressure. (b) Before increasing operating pressure above the previously established maximum allowable operating pressure, the operator shall: (1) Review the design, operating, and maintenance history of the segment of pipeline; (2) Make a leakage survey (if it has been more than one year since the last survey) and repair any leaks that are found, except that a leak determined not be potentially hazardous need not be repaired, if it is monitored during the pressure increase and it does not become potentially hazardous; (3) Make any repairs, replacements, or alterations in the segment of pipeline that are necessary for safe operation at the increased pressure; (4) Reinforce or anchor offsets, bends and dent ends in pipe joined by compression couplings or bell and spigot joints to prevent failure of the pipe joint, if the offset, bend, or dead end is exposed in an excavation; (5) Isolate the segment of pipeline in which the pressure is to be increased from any adjacent segment that will continue to be operated at a lower pressure; and (6) If the pressure in mains or service lines, or both, is to be higher than the pressure delivered to the customer, install a service regulator on each service line and test each regulator to determine that it is functioning. Pressure may be increased as necessary to test each regulator, after a regulator has been installed on each pipeline subject to the increased pressure. (c) After complying with subsection (b), the increase in maximum allowable operating pressure must be made in increments that are equal to 10 p.s.i.g. or 25 percent of the total pressure increase, whichever produces the fewer number of increments. Whenever the requirements of subsection (b)(6) apply, there must be at least two approximately equal incremental increases. (d) If records for cast iron or ductile iron pipeline facilities are not complete enough to determine stresses produced by internal pressure, trench loading, rolling loads, beam stresses, and other bending loads, in evaluating the level of safety of the pipeline when operating at the proposed increased pressure, the following procedures must be followed: (1) In estimating the stresses, if the original laying conditions cannot be ascertained, the operator shall assume that cast iron pipe was supported on blocks with tamped backfill and that ductile iron pipe was laid without blocks with tamped backfill; (2) Unless the actual maximum cover depth is known, the operator shall measure the actual cover in at least three places where the cover is most likely to be greatest and shall use the greatest cover measured; (3) Unless the actual nominal wall thickness is known, the operator shall determine the wall thickness by cutting and measuring coupons from at least three separate pipe lengths. The coupons must be cut from pipe lengths in areas where the cover depth is most likely to be the greatest. The average of all measurements taken must be increased by the allowance indicated in the following table: _____________________________________________________________________ __________________ │ Allowance (inches) │ Ductile iron pipe │ Cast Iron Pipe │ Pipe size (inches) │ │ Centrifugally │ │ Pit cast pipe │ cast pipe │ │ │ 3 to 8..........................│ 0.075 │ 0.065 │ 0.065 10 to 12..........................│ 0.08 │ 0.07 │ 0.07 14 to 24..........................│ 0.08 │ 0.08 │ 0.075 30 to 42..........................│ 0.09 │ 0.09 │ 0.075 48..........................│ 0.09 │ 0.09 │ 0.08 54 to 60..........................│ 0.09 │...............│................... ___________________________________│_______________│_______________ │___________________ (4) For cast iron pipe, unless the pipe manufacturing process is known, the operator shall assume that the pipe is pit case pipe with a bursting tensile strength of 11,000 p.s.i. and a modulus of rupture of 31,000 p.s.i. [Eff ] (Auth: HRS '269-6) (Imp: 49 C.F.R. '192.557, October 1, 1990) Subchapter 14 Operations ## Provenance - Official: Yes - Source: - Source ID: `hi-puc-har-6-77` - SHA-256: `51f45b2f36dcf39796f78dd89dd0682613de2b46ec903bdd4b76a91d777f7774` - Retrieved: 2026-08-12T08:22:24.168Z - Exported: 2026-08-25T12:09:37.222Z - Document slug: `hi-har-har-6-77-155` ### Source metadata ```json { "jurisdiction": "US-HI", "chapter": "HAR Chapter 6-77", "provisionKind": "section", "adoptedOn": "1994-04-15", "filedOn": "1994-08-24", "exactEffectiveDateAvailableInPublication": true, "publicationStatus": "officially-published-superseded-slated-for-repeal", "phmsaProgramParticipant": false, "stateCertificationRepresented": false, "federalInspectionAndEnforcement": [ "interstate gas", "intrastate gas", "interstate hazardous liquid", "intrastate hazardous liquid" ], "fixedFederalBaseline": "1990-10-01", "editorialModernizationApplied": false, "references": [ { "citation": "49 CFR 192.557", "referenceType": "federal_regulation", "url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/section-192.557", "incorporatedEdition": "1990-10-01" }, { "citation": "HRS 269-6", "referenceType": "state_statute", "url": "https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol05_Ch0261-0319/HRS0269/HRS_0269-0006.htm" } ], "caveats": { "exactScope": "Complete substantive text of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission publication of HAR Chapter 6-77: 196 non-reserved numbered sections and Appendices A through D. Four expressly reserved section slots are inventory-only. The PUC's April 2026 page links a 160-page signed scan; an official 178-page text-layer copy from Budget and Finance is used as the higher-quality transcription aid. The publication is an April 15, 1994 adoption, filed August 24 and effective September 3, 1994, based on the October 1, 1990 federal text; it is not a current restatement of federal pipeline standards.", "applicability": "Hawaii is not represented as certified, as an agreement state, or as an interstate agent under the PHMSA federal-state pipeline safety program. PHMSA states that its Office of Pipeline Safety inspects and enforces federal pipeline safety regulations for interstate and intrastate gas and hazardous-liquid pipelines in Hawaii. Chapter 6-77 may remain relevant as published state utility material, but it must not be used to infer current Hawaii inspection or enforcement authority.", "currentness": "The Hawaii PUC still links Chapter 6-77 on its official rules page, updated April 2026. Hawaii's official 2022 periodic rules-review report separately says Chapter 6-77 is to be repealed, was superseded by statute and a federal takeover letter, and cites 2009 Act 25. Because the PUC page does not mark the chapter repealed, this connector preserves the published text with an explicit superseded/slated-for-repeal warning rather than declaring an unproved completed administrative repeal.", "incorporation": "The chapter repeatedly identifies the October 1, 1990 edition of 49 CFR Parts 191 and 192 and its appendices as the implemented source. That fixed, obsolete baseline is preserved exactly. Current federal text, later amendments, and current editions of incorporated private standards must not be silently substituted when researching what this publication says.", "excludedScope": "This connector excludes HAR Chapter 6-83 one-call damage prevention, utility rates and service standards, statutes as standalone documents, dockets, orders, tariffs, federal text, current federal amendments, and the full text of incorporated private standards. Those materials require separate completeness, currentness, applicability, and rights analysis.", "rights": "Official Hawaii and PHMSA artifacts are retained with attribution and SHA-256 provenance. Public access does not establish unrestricted rights in site presentation, state marks, forms, or incorporated private standards. The connector records citations to private standards but makes no independent rights claim for those works." }, "region": "HI" } ```