Boring - Trenchless International

Dec Downey
Istt Chairman
International Society for
Trenchless Technology
www.istt.com
info@istt.com
Chairman: Dr Dec Downey
dec.downey@jasonconsult.com
Vice-Chairman: Dr Samuel Ariaratnam
ariaratnam@asu.edu
Executive Director: John Hemphill
hemphill@istt.com
Membership Secretary: Kyoko Kondo
kondo@istt.com
Executive Sub Committee
Derek Choi: China
Karel Franczyk: Czech Republic
Gerda Hald: Denmark
Norman Howell: United Kingdom
Olga Martynyk: Ukraine
Executive Director, ISTT
308 S. Lee Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
United States
Tel: +1 (703) 299-8484
Kyoko Kondo (Ms.)
Membership Secretary ISTT
3rd Nishimura Bldg.,
2-11-18, Tomioka, Koto-ku,
Tokyo 135-0047, Japan
Tel: +81 (3)5639 9970
FAX: +81 (3)5639 9975
Registered Address:
15 Belgrave Square
LONDON, SW1X 8PS
UK
Recently I looked back at past
issues of the Underground Construction
magazine Annual Municipal Survey and
compared their estimates of trenchless
activity in the water pipe rehabilitation for
2004 and 2009 and I was pleasantly surprised
to see significant growth, about 50
per cent in the past five years. Perhaps
the Dawn of the Replacement Era heralded
by AWWA in 2001 is actually upon
us – better late than never! Turning the
pages of the industry magazines and journals;
there certainly does seem to be an
increase in activity levels with job stories
and investment news on InsituGuard ® ,
Aquapipe ® , SwageLining and various
polymer spray linings. In the UK there
are expectations in certain quarters that
AMP5 will bring new emphasis on
structural lining now that water quality
programs have generally been completed
and in Hong Kong there seems to be
WSD projects on every street corner. The
need, as pointed out by AWWA and the
EPA Needs assessment, has been with
us for some time and perhaps now we are
seeing long overdue step change in installation
works.
Of course water mains renovation and
replacement is an order of magnitude
more difficult than corresponding sewer
works, condition assessment and service
reinstatements have always been more of
a challenge in clean water and perhaps
the absence of tools in the tool box has
been an inhibiting factor. There has been
progress in these areas – use of the
iTAP ® type robot seems to be satisfactory
and this is encouraging others to develop
similar tools. Leak detection has been recognised
as a particularly useful means of
identiying stressed pipelines and various
electromagnetic tools facilitate determination
of residual life and help prioritise
rehabilitation works. What else do we
need to keep the momentum growing in
this important sector of our business?
Clear standard specification and
approval procedures spring to mind. It
seems to take an inordinate amount of
time and money for the development of
standards and approvals and these are
vital to building the confidence in the
utility owner community that will unlock
the investments necessary to regenerate
our water infrastructure. Standards are
usually created by committees representing
owners and suppliers, some groups are
more welcoming to new entrants than others,
some are heavy with vested interests,
some seek to screen members by requiring
that they represent industry groups.
And here is my question to our membership
– should ISTT seek to play a role in
the developments of standards and exert
influence on the approvals procedures?
We can say that we represent all sides of
the industry and we do have within our
membership some of the most respected
professionals who could play a part in the
process subject of course to the establishment
of proper practices and procedures
within our organisation. In many cases the
regulation of the industry is quite properly
a local matter, though in Europe and
through North America regional groups do
the business. Where local determination is
the preference could ISTT fulfil an advisory
role to the national chapter or affiliated
society? Certainly we get many enquiries
concerning standards and approvals and
it may be we should put our hand up and
volunteer our potential contribution.
These activities are energy and time
intensive – we may need to consider
resourcing an initiative if our membership
considers that we should be more active
in these areas. Fortunately ISTT has come
though the lean times, at least for now, our
successful events and training initiative
mean that I hope to hand over a thriving
organisation to Dr Sam Ariaratnam
in November. Participation in standards
development in partnership with member
organisations may be a component
of the outreach we should be funding.
Let’s hear what you have to say. I write
this hoping that we can develop a lively
debate in the lead up to the Singapore
International Conference where your ISTT
Board members can be briefed to inform
a consensus. I shall be visiting NASTT in
Chicago, UKSTT at their annual dinner
and ABRATT in Sao Paolo in the coming
months so I hope to meet many members
and hear your views.
FROM the CHAIRMAN’s desk
April 2010 - Trenchless International
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