Method and apparatus for routing cable in existing pipelines

A method of providing a means of routing a cable structure in an existing pipeline having an internal radius R′, said method comprising:

• discontinuously installing a plurality of carriers into an existing pipeline, said carriers optionally associated with a loading means which functions to exert pressure radially inward onto the exterior of the carrier between the carrier or a portion thereof and the interior wall of said pipeline, and
• fixing said carriers in said pipeline,
• wherein said carriers bear a cable support means adapted to receive a cable structure or are adapted to bear a cable support means;
• and where when said carriers bear no cable support means but are adapted to bear a cable support means, installing cable support means in a plurality of said carriers, said cable support means adapted to receive a cable structure,
• wherein said carrier comprises a hollow cylindrical sleeve or portion thereof, said cylindrical sleeve having a coiled or folded configuration whose largest dimension, prior to fixing in said pipeline and in a plane orthogonal and transverse to the direction of the length of the cylinder, is less than the diameter of the pipeline, said cylindrical sleeve being expandable by unfolding, uncoiling, or a combination thereof, to an external diameter R substantially the same as R′, and when said carrier is of coiled metal having no loading means located between the external metal surface of the carrier and the interior of the pipeline wall, said metal carrier has an aspect ratio of at least 0.33.