points It’s Important To Be Aware Of Pipeline Inspection

During the early eighties and speaking generally, the only internal pipeline inspection was either carried out by the sewer inspection companies, who does be inspecting mainly dry sewer pipe sections over short distances; typically not exceeding 150m and who stop if the pipe became surcharged so much that the camera would become submerged along with the oil industry support companies who would run ‘intelligent pigs’ though the oil pipes to assess weld integrity, pipe wall thickness and condition in to assess pipeline longevity and safe operating pressure.

Right now the water companies who have been largely oblivious to the internal condition of these pipelines, adits, aqueducts and tunnels were starting out have concerns about the integrity of these assets, several of which was constructed throughout the Victorian era or higher recently in the early fifties along never been inspected and were unsuccessfully looking for companies and/or equipment that may carry out such surveys.

In some cases these were capable to de-water the pipelines if sufficient diameter, they will send a confined space team in to do a visual survey; such surveys were obviously fraught with potential dangers, most famously of which included the danger of collapse, flooding along with the accumulation of toxic gasses.

De-watering was included with its own set of potential risks to the structural integrity of the concrete, tunnelled and brick constructed pipelines; in most cases, small leaks developed by displaced joints, erosion and localised damage etc. enabled the leaking water to identify a path through the ground well as over many years, earth can be washed out from around the pipe, often producing large water filled voids forming across the not in the pipeline.

The newly de-watered pipeline which will often be partially dependent upon the top water inside the pipeline (trying to push the walls out), to keep its structural integrity, could suddenly experience several tons of water outside of the pipeline (looking to push the walls in), creating localised parts of external underhand, which may often bring about pipe failure and localised collapse, causing subsidence of the ground across the pipeline manifesting as holes in the earth that would appear ‘over-night’.

About on this occasion there is a growing demand from the Water Companies for you divers up water filled pipes armed with CCTV cameras, to survey as far his or her nerve or umbilical length would permit.

In just a very short time period the HSE Diving Executive, showed a keen fascination with the safety element of sticking divers up pipes and very quickly a trip range of around 30m as a maximum was considered safe, providing that the necessary security precautions were in place.

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