April 2018 Vol. 73 No. 4

Features

CGA Issues Report Examining Advancements, Gaps in Underground Safety Tech

The Common Ground Alliance (CGA) has firmly established itself as the primary driving force for preventing damage to underground utilities.

Composed of membership representing every area involved in the underground construction industry, CGA is best known for its Best Practices Guide, successful efforts to establish the toll-free 811 call-before-you-dig number, and its annual Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) report. This year, the association has added a new report about technologies used to identify locations of buried infrastructure.

The Technology Advancements and Gaps in Underground Safety Report was presented at CGA’s annual meeting in March, and announced in a press release while the event was underway. Based on a survey of members, CGA plans to issue the report annually. It can be downloaded from the CGA website
(commongroundalliance.com).

“Our inaugural Technology Report allows stakeholders in every facet of damage prevention to assess existing technologies that they may be able to apply to their particular segment of the safe digging process,” said Sarah Magruder Lyle, CGA president and CEO. “The report provides technology developers with an opportunity to examine areas where there are market opportunities for new solutions, and we hope they’ll work towards developing partnerships and advanced technologies that the industry is asking for.”

Structure of the report includes a summary of existing technologies to prevent damage to underground infrastructure, identification of opportunities or gaps in existing technologies, and three case histories of projects employing new or emerging technologies.
The existing technologies recognize the full range of methods being used today to locate and mark utilities, ranging from One-Call, locating equipment, imaging and public awareness efforts.

Gaps

Likely to draw the most interest is the “opportunities and gaps” segment which lists multiple topics under each category heading. Below are some both obvious and not-so-obvious needs and “gaps” documented in the report:

• Locating
• Excavating
• GPS/Digital Mapping
• Mobile device/ mobile data collection
• Ticket management and processing
• Education/training

Examples of points listed in the “new technologies” section include ticket risk assessment; mobile access to locating marks; a construction documentation and safety checklist app, LSBUD (line-search-before-you-dig); a buried excavation alert system; mapping of metallic and non-metallic lines with radio gradiometer; and field inspection data software.

Suggestions about gaps and new technology include specialized laser-based gas leak detection, predictive analytics/risk management assessment, locatable plastic pipe, data visualization, standardization of GIS (geographic information system), documenting assets during routine maintenance, mapping assets through mainline inspections, better GPS (global positioning system) strength in urban “canyons,” software for quality feedback about GPS coordinates, and development of GPS data quality.

The above information summarizes some of the findings; see the full report for complete details. The charts show who responded to questions asked in the survey and answers to questions in the survey.

Categories

The top categories of people submitting information for the survey were One-Call, locators, excavators, manufacturers,
excavators and “other.”

Leading recommendations for new technologies were in the categories of excavation ticket management, locating and GPS/digital mapping/GIS.

Survey respondents said stakeholders that could most benefit from technology improvements are gas distribution, excavator, gas transmission and locating.

The survey and report were conducted by CGA’s Technology Committee.
“Technology is an important component of damage prevention,” concludes the report. “As such, it needs to be identified, evaluated, and shared so that anyone involved in protecting underground assets has an opportunity to use that technology for their own regional needs. This report shares the collective knowledge about these technologies with the goal of furthering discussions, improvements and better ways of using them.

“The CGA Technology Committee will strive to expand upon and improve this annual report for it to serve as an almanac of underground damage prevention.”

Thomas Young, Technology Committee co-chairman, said the committee encourages stakeholders to continue submitting information via its always-open survey, so it can refine and improve the report annually.

Case Studies

The Technology Advancements and Gaps in Underground Safety Report contains three detailed cases about test projects using emerging technologies, as summarized below.

Case Study 1  Conducted by the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), it invoked application of the Optimizing Radar to Find Everything Under the Street (ORFEUS) obstacle detection system for horizontal directional drilling (HDD).

Conducted in Europe, this project allowed for development of HDD equipment with “look ahead” technology, via radar incorporated into the drilling head to detect and warn the operator of obstacles during the drilling operation. The development phase allowed for the realization of experiments, onsite tests, and user input to estimate and validate the technology.

“ORFEUS’s successful development of the HDD radar concept offers substantial benefits in worldwide sectors, including Europe and the United States,” said the test report. “Such technology allows for enhanced safety, environmental and technical advantages, and lower costs of HDD, compared to standard trench-based systems. Further research is being sought for the development and commercialization of the technology.”

Case Study 2  Reducing excavation damage in the natural gas industry using real-time GIS and sensors, was also conducted by GTI in cooperation with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E).

A black box device containing GPS sensors with orientation, accelerometer and gyroscope to provide data of movement, plus a cellular modem to transmit date in real-time, was used in conjunction with a computing platform. This platform contained real-time GIS software and machine learning characterization algorithms to determine the status of excavators and backhoes in the field.

The black box devices were installed on a host of varying equipment including backhoes, excavators and agricultural equipment. Once the devices are installed on the field equipment, they send location and inclination information every five seconds as they move around PG&E’s service territory.

The system utilizes GIS data that contains spatial information about the PG&E transmission mains as an overlay on an aerial image. The GIS data, in conjunction with the location of the equipment in the field, provides a means for analyzing in real-time the proximity of the equipment to the gas system, signaling to the operator using audible and visual alarms that a gas main is near.

The concept of providing a buffer around a gas main also has other potential that was explored through the project with PG&E. A buffer boundary allows for 811 or One-Call tickets to be added to the system to provide “safe-
areas” for digging, provided the ticket was active.

“As a result of the successful deployment of the project, GTI is actively working with PG&E to find a company to commercialize the technology and make it available in the marketplace,” concluded the test report.
Case Study 3  Increasing efficiencies in pre- and post- inspections for crossbores, was conducted by Southern California Gas (SoCalGas).

Through its Sewer Lateral Inspection Program (SLIP), SoCalGas has been proactively inspecting all sewer laterals located within its 20,000-mile service territory for crossbores. With every address from the U.S.-Mexico border, up to the middle of Fresno, Calif., requiring inspection, SoCalGas has taken steps to use technology and methods that can meet the demands of the program. Grids are created and triple-checked to make sure every address with a sewer lateral is inspected.

Mainline inspection vehicles crawl down a main and deploy a “lateral launch camera” into connecting laterals, allowing  SoCalGas to inspect the lateral back up to the property.  If the lateral launcher cannot inspect the property’s drain line sufficiently, another camera is inserted into the property’s clean-out or roof vent and then pushed back to the main. If no signs of crossbores are found, the address is cleared. SoCalGas reviews the inspection footage once more before archiving it in a database.

However, in older neighborhoods inspections were hampered by older cast iron fittings and lack of  front-side fittings. Working directly with Ridgid SeeSnake, inspection camera engineers developed a longer spring assembly as a stiffer push cable. A method of pinpointing locations of detected crossbores also was developed.

“The program’s success so far serves as an example to other gas providers undertaking similar projects to find and remove crossbores,” the test report concluded. “It is also a testament to the success of partnerships between utility owners, manufacturers and contractors.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Common Ground Alliance,
(703) 836 1709,
commongroundalliance.com

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