Field Demonstration of Emerging Pipe Wall Integrity Assessment Technologies for Large Cast Iron Water Mains

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sponsored a large-scale field demonstration of innovative leak detection/location and condition assessment technologies on a 76-year old, 2,500-ft long, cement-lined, 24-in. cast-iron water main in Louisville, KY from July through September 2009. Six inspection companies demonstrated a total of 12 technologies that were at various stages of development and provided different types and levels of structural condition data. This paper presents the results of six pipe wall integrity assessment technologies, including both inline inspection of the entire pipeline length (i.e., Sahara Video®, PPIC PipeDiver® RFEC, and Russell NDE Systems See Snake® RFEC) and external inspection at selected excavation points (i.e., AESL ECAT, RSG HSK, and RSG CAP). These inspection technologies can acquire pipe condition data, such as wall thickness, metal loss, and/or cracks. For each technology, inspection results will be compared to the dimensions and locations of induced defects and naturally-occurring defects found after excavation; however, this portion of the project had not yet been completed at the time this paper was written.