Industry News, trenchless people
GSSI, the world’s leading manufacturer of ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment, proudly announces a new territorial sales restructuring designed to better serve customers. GSSI has reorganized its sales department into four regional territories to support further growth in its concrete inspection, non-destructive testing, and utility locating markets. With the new structure, application specialists will be based in the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest, making sales staff closer in proximity to customers. Customers can continue to expect best-in-class products and service support during 2018. Look for increased support staff and enhanced training class offerings in the coming year.
In the Northeast territory, Peter Masters will serve as application specialist. Peter has worked in the concrete and utility markets since 2005 and has been instrumental to the success of the StructureScan and UtilityScan products. He is actively involved in key industry associations, including the ASNT, ACI, CGA and NULCA. Based in the Greater Boston Area, Peter will be responsible for sales in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, DC, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
The Southwest territory will be served by Michael Phillips, who recently joined GSSI as an application specialist. Mike brings nearly a decade of experience in concrete construction product sales. He will be based out of the Las Vegas area and will serve customers in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah.
The Northwest territory will be served by Tom Timperman, who has been with GSSI for two years as the Search & Rescue Product Specialist. Tom brings 20+ years of senior level sales experience and is excited to expand his responsibilities into the concrete and utility markets. Tom is based in Spokane, Washington and will handle customers in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington.
Bruno Silla will serve the Southeast territory. Bruno has been a concrete application specialist with GSSI for four years. Based out of Fort Meyers, Florida, Bruno is actively involved in the Concrete Sawing and Drilling Association (CSDA), serving as the GPR Committee Vice Chair and Next-Gen Committee Vice Chair. His responsibility includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Caroline, Tennessee, and Texas.
About GSSI
Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc. is the world leader in the development, manufacture, and sale of ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment, primarily for the concrete inspection, utility mapping and locating, road and bridge deck evaluation, geophysics, and archaeology markets. Our equipment is used all over the world to explore the subsurface of the earth and to inspect infrastructure systems non-destructively. GSSI created the first commercial GPR system over 45 years ago and continues to provide the widest range and highest quality GPR equipment available today.
trenchless projects
Workhorse Machine makes progress in Difficult Ground
A rebuilt Robbins 3.5 m (11.5 ft) diameter Main Beam TBM has yet another milestone to add to its storied career: an unexpected cavern, encountered and successfully passed through.
Contractor Eiffage Civil Engineering is operating the machine, which launched in 2017 for the Galerie des Janots project in La Ciotat, France. The cavern, studded with stalactites and stalagmites and measuring 8,000 cubic meters (283,000 cubic ft) in size, was grazed on the tunneling operation’s left side. The crew named the cavern “grotte Marie Lesimple” after their site geologist.
“We hit the corner of it. To cross it, we had to erect a 4 m (13 ft) high wall of concrete so the TBM would have something to grip against,” explained Marc Dhiersat, Project Director of Galerie des Janots for Eiffage. A small door allowed access inside the cavity, which formed naturally at a point 60 m (200 ft) below the surface. The TBM was started up and was able to successfully navigate out of the cavern in eight strokes without significant downtime to the operation.
“This is certainly unusual, to come across a cavern of this size and significance. It is somewhat related to the geology, with karstic and volcanic formations having the most potential for underground cavities,” said Detlef Jordan, Robbins Sales Manager Europe. Karst cavities were a known risk during the bore, but the cavern was not shown in vertical borehole reports conducted from the surface along the alignment.
A further 1.8 km (1.1 mi) will need to be tunneled before the 2.8 km (1.7 mi) tunnel is complete. “It is possible there could be more unknown caverns. We have a geotechnical BEAM system on the machine, and are conducting probe drilling, shotcreting, and maintenance in a separate shift,” said Dhiersat. The BEAM system, standing for Bore-tunneling Electrical Ahead Monitoring, is a ground prediction technique using focused electricity-induced polarization to detect anomalies ahead of the TBM.
The crew encountered difficult ground conditions early on in the bore, consisting of limestone with powdery clays. “When the machine is boring it does well. We have good production and it’s a good machine for hard rock. But sometimes it’s not hard rock that we encounter,” said Dhiersat. The weak rock and clay conditions necessitated ground support including resin-anchored bolts and rings in bad ground, topped with a 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) thick layer of shotcrete. Despite five months of poor ground conditions, Eiffage is optimistic that conditions will improve and the tunnel will be complete in the next four to five months.
Galerie des Janots is one of the fourteen operations designed to save water and protect resources, which are being carried out by the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis, the water agency Rhône Mediterranean Corsica, and the State Government. The future Janots gallery will replace existing pipelines currently located in a railway tunnel—these original pipes have significant deficiencies with estimated water losses of 500,000 cubic meters (132 million gallons) per year.
The completed tunnel will pass under Le Parc National des Calanques, with cover between 15 and 180 meters (50 to 600 ft), in order to replace the pipes that are currently being utilized for the water supply networks. “The current pipes have a capacity of transit limited to 330 liters (87 gallons) per second, which is largely insufficient in the summer period. The objective of the operation is to secure the lines and increase capacity to 440 liters (116 gallons) per second,” said Dhiersat.
Image 1: The Robbins TBM encountered an unexpected cavern measuring 8,000 cubic meters (283,000 cubic ft) in size.
Image 2: Despite continued difficult ground, contractor Eiffage is confident in the Robbins TBM performance and optimistic that the tunnel can be completed in four to five months.
Industry News, trenchless people
THOMPSON, CONNECTICUT USA, April 3, 2018:
Numa, the world’s leading drilling technology provider, has announced the addition of Mike Epley as Regional Manager. Mike is based in Austin, TX and will be responsible for new business development west of the Mississippi River. The position will require him to travel throughout the region to grow new direct and dealer sales of Numa’s DTH hammers and bits.
“Numa has grown to become the world leader in drilling technology by providing world-class expertise and products,” said Numa Vice President of Sales, Neal Kuszewski. “Mike is a great addition to our team and his deep experience shows Numa’s commitment to, and ongoing investment in, supporting drillers with a complete solution of people, products and technology.”
Mike commented, “Numa has a long history of being an innovator and leading provider of DTH products. I am very excited to join Numa and be able to offer customers a superior solution for their drilling needs.”
Mike comes to Numa with 29 years of experience in the drilling industry. For the past 5 years, he was one of the top salespeople for a leading rig manufacturer, where he was responsible for selling drill rigs and consumables to water well, quarry, mining and oil/gas customers. Prior to that, he worked for a drilling supply company in the southwest selling DTH products and rigs. Mike began in the drilling industry when he worked for 19 years at Epley Enterprises where he held many roles including in purchasing, production control, sales and upper management.
ABOUT NUMA
Numa provides the world’s leading drilling technology with over 100 DTH Hammer and Bit products serving 11 different industries. Our products are capable of drilling vertical, horizontal, and reverse circulation holes from 3½ to 50½ inches (89 – 1283 mm) in diameter in hard rock and unconsolidated formations. With customers located in 105+ countries, we have built our customer-centric reputation on providing the highest value in products, performance and personal service available in the rock drilling industry.
Industry News, trenchless projects
The University of Central Florida purchased a Vac-Tron AIR 373 SDT vacuum excavator in 2016 and shared the benefits this unit has created for the facilities.
“We didn’t have an initiative on campus to do soft digging and locating, so we went looking for a solution and Vac-Tron came out to be the best value for our money,” said Anthony Lugo, UCF Utility Supervisor.
Project Descriptions
Some of the initiatives that UCF utility workers handle daily include identifying and mapping the location of utility lines.
“We have a lot of old utility lines in the ground that haven’t been located in many decades. They have never been marked properly, and it is our job to find them, mark them, and put them on the map. Finding those lines can be time consuming and intrusive to the property. But the biggest obstacle, when you are part of the utility crew, is safety, you don’t want to hit electrical lines with a shovel.” said Lugo.
The utility crew is also responsible for emergency water line breaks. “Prepping the area for a water line break repair is a tedious job and time is of the essence.” added Lugo.
Solution
The Vac-Tron AIR 373 SDT vacuum excavation unit. The UCF AIR unit is powered by an 83 HP Yanmar diesel engine and comes standard with a 300-gallon debris tank, air pressure of 150 CFM at 170 PSI, hydraulically operated full-open rear door with auto engage safety latch, and one 100-gallon water tank. This unit also has the Patented Remote Debris Tank, which collects the dry material and then can be positioned back over the hole to put back into place without causing much disruption to the surroundings.
Upgrading from traditional methods of excavation, an excavator or hand shovel, to a Vac-Tron unit has greatly increased efficiency for the UCF utility crew. “It made things faster, it made things safer. It saves us a lot of time, what used to take 4-6 hours, now only takes 1-2 hours. We aren’t spending any unnecessary time doing a job.” said Lugo.
“The biggest thing is safety, safety is the key aspect. The Vac-Tron unit allows us to be safe in an expedited fashion. This is considered soft digging, which is just basically pulling the dirt out of the ground so you’re not striking anything. You could hit a high voltage electrical line, high pressure water or gas line, any number of things, and the Vac-Tron AIR unit helps to eliminate that.” stated Lugo.
Results
- Potholing quickly to locate old utility lines for identification and mapping
- 4-6 hour projects now take 1-2 hours
- Respond quicker to water line breaks
- Quicker repairs to water line breaks with the power of the vacuum excavator removing debris
- Cleaning of storm drains in an efficient way
- Wastewater spills quickly cleaned up
- Less intrusive to the campus’ infrastructure
- Less disruption to the environment
Multiple departments at UCF are also using the Vac-Tron unit. For example, the Landscaping and Recreation crew uses it to clean out storm drains, and the Design and Construction team will request it to locate lines for future construction on the campus. UCF has found multiple uses for the Vac-Tron unit. “This has been a godsend because we can actually find things without being as intrusive to the campus’ infrastructure. For the value we are getting, it has turned out to be priceless!” added Lugo.
Check out the full interview and video footage of the unit in action at UCF https://www.vactron.com/utility-crew-ucf-vacuum-excavation-case-study/.
Industry News, trenchless people
EVANSVILLE, IN – March 19, 2018 – Hydromax USA is pleased to announce that it has acquired Miller Pipetech, an environmental services company specializing in pipeline condition assessment for wastewater and natural gas utilities.
The acquisition of Miller Pipetech’s technical service division will enable Hydromax USA to increase its capacity to deliver on its high-demand, suite of service solutions for both critical gas cross bore identification and sewer condition infrastructure assessment programs. Throughout the country, cross bores continue to be a cause of concern as more and more stakeholders are addressing the problem and associated risks. Cross bores, unintended intersections of utilities, pose a threat to public safety and industry workers alike. All types of cross bores can cause damage, however the intersection of natural gas lines in sewer pipes are considered the highest threats. In addition, aging sewer infrastructure coupled with limited financial resources continues to further the need for utilities to understand the current state of buried sewer infrastructure in order to maximize their use of funds on rehabilitation.
This acquisition will strengthen Hydromax USA’s footprint in the Eastern and Midwestern United States, enabling Hydromax to extend the capabilities of its state-of-the-art Louisville Data Center to current clientele of Miller Pipetech. Louisville’s data center provides end client solutions and support to our clientele nationwide, delivering unmatched project quality assurance through our 100% audit approach; key program and infrastructure insights through our web-based business intelligence platforms; management, analysis, and integration of terabytes of program information into client information systems; and technical support of our field operations nationwide.
“The completion of this acquisition opens new opportunities for our clients, our employees and the communities in which we serve,” said Jeff Griffiths, Director, East Region for Hydromax USA. “We are very excited to begin to introduce our enhanced services to the Miller Pipetech client network and we look forward to a smooth transition as we add Miller Pipetech’s technical service assets and experienced personnel to our team.”
Hydromax USA’s services include:
GasSafe®
Our GasSafe™ suite of solutions puts critical data at your fingertips for planning, operations and regulatory compliance. These solutions are based on a unique, comprehensive combination of processes, GIS platforms and rigorous QA/QC requirements that provide high-confidence, verifiable results.
Cross Bore Inspection
Gas Leak Survey
GIS Data Integration
IntelliSpan 360™
Hydromax USA provides comprehensive evaluation and assessment of sewer systems using state-of-the art technologies and techniques. Pinpointing problem areas supported with precise, accurate data enables utilities to make cost-effective decisions in the rehabilitation of their infrastructure.
CCTV Inspection
Flow Monitoring
Manhole Inspections
Smoke Testing
Dye Water Flooding
MaxSense™
Our MaxSense multi-sensor inspection solution comprises any combination of inspection technologies, such as camera, sonar and laser. The key is to present the data in an efficient, easy-to-understand format that accurately describes corrosion, sedimentation and structural defects. HUSA has significant experience with several multi-sensor technologies offering advanced capabilities, such as continuous & simultaneous data collection with easily interpreted data in open source formats.
Hydromax also offers advanced solutions for the water industry through its advanced offering of condition assessment services p-Cat, Utilis, and IntelliSpan 360 – providing an unmatched portfolio of services to clients across the country.
“Hydromax USA uses many technologies to provide valid and reliable infrastructure condition assessment data to our clientele. We have capitalized on advancements in technology to develop a suite of unparalleled solutions for our clients in the sewer, gas, and water sectors. Our programs are designed to provide you with essential information that will help to improve capital investment and O&M planning, provide continuity for critical systems, manage risk, and facilitate regulatory compliance. Our portfolio of services, depth of experience, and customer-centric focus is what sets us apart from other firms.
Steve Lacy, CEO, Hydromax USA
The acquisition was completed March 19, 2018. Financial terms of the transaction are undisclosed.
About Hydromax USA
Established in 2003, Hydromax USA is a professional services firm specializing in data collection in support of locating and assessing the condition of the country’s aging water, wastewater and natural gas conveyance systems. Hydromax USA’s vast experience with new technologies and techniques empowers contractors, engineers and utility owners to make the best rehabilitation decisions regarding their buried infrastructure.
Hydromax USA has performed infrastructure condition assessment programs that have evaluated hundreds of thousands of infrastructure assets, helped clients recover millions of gallons in lost water, and provided information management services for improvement of system models and development of GIS integrated solutions for utilities across the United States.
About Miller Pipetech
Miller Pipetech, together with its predecessors, is an environmental services company specializing in pipeline assessment and repair for utilities and service contractors for over 30 years. The company is a fusion of plumbing services and technical services, which are identified respectively as Miller Pipetech Plumbing Service Division and Miller Pipetech Technical Service Division. The Miller Pipetech Plumbing Service Division is not part of the acquisition and will remain in operation doing business as Ron Miller Plumbing, LLC.
Contacts:
Jeff Griffiths Jeff Graham
Director, East Region Director, Central Region
Phone: 757-353-1521 Phone: 502-548-8965
jeffrey.griffiths@hydromaxusa.com jeff.graham@hydromaxusa.com
Source: Hydromax USA, LLC
GSSI, the world’s leading manufacturer of ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment, proudly announces a new territorial sales restructuring designed to better serve customers. GSSI has reorganized its sales department into four regional territories to support further growth in its concrete inspection, non-destructive testing, and utility locating markets. With the new structure, application specialists will be based in the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest, making sales staff closer in proximity to customers. Customers can continue to expect best-in-class products and service support during 2018. Look for increased support staff and enhanced training class offerings in the coming year.
