In early eighties and speaking generally, the only real internal pipeline inspection was either done by the sewer inspection companies, who’d be inspecting mainly dry sewer pipe sections over short distances; typically not exceeding 150m and who would stop in the event the pipe became surcharged so much that the camera would become submerged and the oil industry support companies who’d run ‘intelligent pigs’ although oil pipes to guage weld integrity, pipe wall thickness and condition in to assess pipeline longevity and safe operating pressure.
Currently water companies who had been largely oblivious on the internal condition of their pipelines, adits, aqueducts and tunnels were beginning to have concerns concerning the integrity of these assets, a few of which had been constructed in the Victorian times or maybe more recently in the early fifties and had never been inspected and were unsuccessfully looking for companies and/or equipment that could carry out such surveys.
Sometimes these were capable to de-water the pipelines and when large enough diameter, they might send a confined space team directly into do a visual survey; such surveys were obviously fraught with potential dangers, such as which included the danger of collapse, flooding as well as the accumulation of toxic gasses.
De-watering came with its very own group of potential risks towards the structural integrity from the concrete, tunnelled and brick constructed pipelines; most often, small leaks developed by displaced joints, erosion and localised damage etc. enabled the leaking water to locate a path with the ground as well as over many years, earth would be washed out from round the pipe, often resulting in large water filled voids forming round the away from the pipeline.
The newly de-watered pipeline which would regularly be partially just a few the top of water inside pipeline (trying to push the walls out), to take care of its structural integrity, could suddenly experience several a lot of water not in the pipeline (attempting to push the walls in), creating localised areas of external ruthless, which will often result in pipe failure and localised collapse, causing subsidence with the ground across the pipeline manifesting as holes in your yard that might appear ‘over-night’.
About now there is an escalating demand from your Water Companies to deliver divers up water filled pipes armed with CCTV cameras, to survey as far for their nerve or umbilical length would permit.
Inside a very small amount of time the HSE Diving Executive, showed an enthusiastic fascination with the security element of sticking divers up pipes and before long an excursion array of around 30m as a maximum was considered safe, providing that all the essential safety measures were set up.
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