Underground Construction - April 2019 - 7

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
* Avoiding Entanglement of Conduit
on Reels or Coils
* Straightening Coiled PE Conduit
* Safety when Cutting PE Conduit to
Length
The Guide (TN-58) is available free
and can be found on PPI's website via
its homepage, under the "Publications" menu option, where a Technical Documents Index is provided.
plasticpipe.org

Experts Partner on
VR training for First
Responders to Natural
Gas Emergencies
Virtual Reality software and energy
R&D experts are jointly developing VR
training for first responders to natural

TTC used 24-inch RCP with known defects
to conduct validation of Easy-Sight 3D imaging
technology for inspecting manholes and sewer
pipelines.

In Indianapolis, TTC validated Easy-Sight via
a 10-foot manhole.
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.

gas leak calls.
To improve emergency response
effectiveness and coordination, the
training will focus on aspects of
investigating the leak, identifying and
eliminating ignition sources, securing
the location, evacuation, ventilation,
communicating with emergency
personnel, and identifying changing
conditions that utility operations and
fire department personnel might face.
The emergency response simulation
will combine multi-user functionality,
randomized potential hazards, and
simulated consequences.
Partners include PIXO VR, [Royal
Oak, Mich.] a Royal Oak, Mich., VR
training provider recently spotlighted by CNBC as a leader in its field.

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. *
latech.edu/research-enterprise/centers-ofexcellence/trenchless-technology-center/

Working with PIXO VR as a subject
matter expert on the interactive
learning experience is leading energy
research, development and training
organization GTI.
"GTI supports the energy industry
in many ways and training is a
critical part of what we offer," said
Ray Deatherage, GTI senior program
manager for Energy Delivery. "When
responding to gas leak emergencies,
enhanced VR training like this will
better prepare first responders to
be more effective and efficient with
identifying and responding to hazardous conditions."
The training development will be
funded by Operations Technology
Development (OTD), a Des Plaines,

Ill., based consortium of 26 natural
gas distributors in the U.S. and Canada that account for 60 percent of all
gas meters in North America.
Supporting OTD's commitment
to safe and reliable infrastructure
operations, the training will include
a fully immersive 3D simulation of
a residential neighborhood, which
trainees must search through to find
and respond to a natural gas leak.
Once completed, the training will be
made available for licensing to OTD
members and the broader industry.
To keep trainees engaged, a wide
variety of situational and environmental details can be randomized
with each experience-everything
from neighborhood appearance, to
UConOnline.com | APRIL 2019

https://www.latech.edu/research-enterprise/centers-of-excellence/trenchless-technology-center/ https://www.latech.edu/research-enterprise/centers-of-excellence/trenchless-technology-center/ http://www.plasticpipe.org http://www.UConOnline.com

Underground Construction - April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Underground Construction - April 2019