April 2019 Vol. 74 No. 4

Newsline

TTC’s Living Lab Grows, Holds 4th Utility Investigation School

Louisiana Tech University’s Trenchless Technology Center (TTC) and the city of Ruston Department of Public Works (COR-DPW) Living Lab Program partnered with Easy-Sight Technologies, a Wuhan, China, developer and manufacturer of Pipeline Condition Assessment (PCA) equipment and software, to offer a mini seminar and field demo. The Feb. 15 event focused on the latest international trends in PCA and demonstrated Easy-Sight’s new 3D imaging technology for the inspection of manholes and sewer pipelines.

This was actually the second component of a validation program being conducting by TTC. The first part was lab work conducted the day before the seminar and field work. Using a 24.6-foot section of 24-inch Reinforced Concrete Pipe (RCP) with known defects in its National Trenchless Technology Research Facility (NTTRF), the TTC research team reviewed Easy-Sight’s new 3D-capable camera crawler for pipeline inspection and its new 3D-capable vertical multi-lens manhole inspection system.

Following the one-day seminar, the TTC team relocated to Indiana to conduct the third component of the validation program: a workshop and demo with Citizens Energy Group (CEG) in Indianapolis on Feb. 19. The fourth component of the validation program consisted of a workshop with the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) in Fishers on February 21.

Utility Investigation School

The TTC and ASCE’s Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute (UESI) teamed up to offer the fourth annual five-day intensive Utility Investigation School (UIS) on Feb. 25–March 1.

This short course gives practitioners knowledge and tools to provide competent utility investigations in accordance with accepted national standards (ASCE 38-02) and to defend against claims through this knowledge and its documentation

In addition to the classroom lectures, practical sessions provided hands-on experience with the various tools.

The course attracted a diverse range of attendees, including representatives from Atkins, Accumark, Accurate Infrastructure Data, Inc., Cardno, City of Monroe, Fenstermaker, Goodbee Associates, NTB Associates, Inc., Surveying And Mapping LLC, SEH Inc., Sigma Consulting Group, SJB Group LLC, SurvWest, Utility Mapping Services Inc. Some travelled from as far away as South Korea. •

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