Underground Infrastructure - October 2023 - 31

This lost water doesn't just cost communities
money and deprive them of a
valuable resource; it's also potentially
dangerous. Undetected leaks can compromise
structural components of the
surrounding infrastructure, leading to
sinkholes, mudslides and other disasters.
" Money is literally leaking out of our
pipes every day, " Schaff said. " There are
some great, proactive approaches that
WSDAW will bring to light - not only
saving money, but increasing safety and
decreasing project delays. "
Cross bores
On the wastewater side, cross bores are
a major threat that communities face.
Cross bores are inadvertent intersections
of an existing underground utility
or structure with a new utility installed
using trenchless technology such as directional
drilling. These intersections
create costly, and often hazardous
situations that, if left untreated, could
result in service interruptions, at best;
and cost lives in the most extreme cases.
" In our industry, the majority of
what we see is telecommunication lines,
gas lines, or fiber lines intersecting with
sewer or storm lines, " Humphreys said.
" When you're talking about gas lines,
a cross bore could result in gas leaking
into a home or business, which could
cause an explosion. "
The Cross Bore Safety Association
estimates that there are up to a million
undetected cross bores riddling
America's infrastructure.
GPRS found 10 such utility intersections
when it conducted sewer line
inspections in Fremont, Calif., where
a large telecommunications firm had
recently completed a significant fiber
installation project.
The city of Fremont requires that
contractors installing utility lines of
any kind hire a CCTV firm to inspect
for cross bores both before and after
the new lines are installed.
The telecommunications company
employed a different CCTV company
to inspect the city's sewer system beA
fiber bundle cross bored into a sewer line that likely would have led to a backed up sewer system
had the problem not been caught and remediated immediately.
UndergroundInfrastructure.com | OCTOBER 2023 31
fore installing the fiber. It hired GPRS
to conduct the post-installation inspection
after the other firm pulled out of
the job due to its size and scope.
Humphreys says Fremont's mandate
of pre- and post-cross bore inspections
should be the model adopted by
all municipalities in the U.S. If the city
didn't mandate those inspections, it's
likely those 10 cross bores would have
gone undetected until disaster struck.
" I would suggest all municipalities
require these
inspections any time
that directional drilling is being done, "
Humphreys said. " We like to be proactive,
rather than reactive. It's going to
save you money in the long run. Repairs
to sewer and storm systems - if you let
(the problems) go, then by the time you
find the problems it's going to be a major,
major cost to get that repaired. " UI
FOR MORE INFORMATION
visit WSDAW.org
This leaking water line could have caused serious problems if it hadn't been located and repaired.

http://www.WSDAW.org http://www.UndergroundInfrastructure.com

Underground Infrastructure - October 2023

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