GPRS’ Video Pipe Inspection Services are being put to good use at a historic hospital in California that’s undergoing an infrastructure overhaul.
The medical campus is undergoing a substantial renovation, which includes updating its buried infrastructure. GPRS Project Manager David Castro has been tasked with deploying GPRS’ sewer scope inspection services to create a complete record of the roughly 56,000 linear feet of sewer infrastructure on the site, including components that have been in the ground for a century.
“…So, we [are] getting good footage for the [hospital] and checking the conditions of the pipes, and noting any areas that they need to address and fix,” Castro said. “These buildings are really old, the sewer lines are really old, they’re outdated [and] kind of beat up in a lot of places, and some of them are abandoned. So, they’re just trying to get a complete picture of what’s going on here with the sewer system.”
GPRS’ Video Pipe Inspection Services utilize CCTV camera-equipped, remote-controlled sewer inspection rovers and push-fed scopes to investigate and map waste and stormwater infrastructure.
These state-of-the-art rovers and scopes are outfitted with sondes: instrument probes that allow GPRS Project Managers to use electromagnetic (EM) locators to ascertain the location of underground utilities from an inaccessible location.
Using this equipment, GPRS can inspect a sewer system for defects such as clogs, cross bores, inflow/infiltration (I/I), and other forms of damage that would otherwise cause costly and potentially dangerous problems.
Even the best equipment, however, is useless unless you have the proper training to use it. The hospital told Castro that they’d worked with other sewer scoping companies prior to GPRS, but the data they received was unusable and they were forced to start over from scratch.
All GPRS VPI Project Managers are certified in the National Association of Sewer Service Companies’ (NASSCO) Pipeline Assessment Certification Program (PACP), Lateral Assessment Certification Program (LACP), and Manhole Assessment Certification Program (MACP). So, they know how to consistently and accurately assess the condition of your pipelines, laterals, and manholes.
All GPRS Project Managers are also certified in Subsurface Investigation Methodology, the industry-leading training program for professional utility locating, precision concrete scanning, and sewer scoping technicians.
To achieve SIM 101 certification, Project Managers complete 320 hours of field training and 80 hours of classroom training. Their classroom training occurs at GPRS’ state-of-the-art training facility in Sylvania, Ohio,
Castro is leaning on his training as he inspects the hospital’s complex sewer system.
“What we’ve been running into is some sections of the system that are obviously abandoned. They’ve got no signs of flow or anything like that, but sometimes the abandoned lines might have a trickle of water in them because there could be infiltration somewhere,” Castro explained. “So, we have to investigate and confirm the best we can, but the condition and the amount of decay in some of the lines is a pretty big issue.”
When you hire GPRS to conduct a sewer inspection, you receive comprehensive WinCan reporting that includes detailed descriptions of any pipe defects found, and video footage and screenshots of these problems. The defects are ranked by severity and geolocated, so you know what needs to be addressed first and exactly where you need to dig to conduct repairs.
These reports are delivered to you via SiteMap® (patent pending), GPRS’ cloud-based infrastructure mapping software solution available to you 24/7 from any computer, tablet, or smartphone for accessible and immediate existing conditions documentation.
The reporting GPRS is providing in California will help the hospital’s leaders plan, update their sewer infrastructure, and avoid costly and potentially dangerous subsurface damage in the process.
“[Our customers are] getting really good information,” Castro said. “It’s not always good, but it’s vital information, and they’re going to take all the data that we provide them and engineer a new system that’s going to hopefully last for the next 50 years.”
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Frequently Asked Questions
What size pipes can GPRS inspect?
Our elite VPI Project Managers have the capabilities to inspect pipes from 2” in diameter and up.
What deliverables does GPRS offer when conducting a sewer scope inspection?
GPRS is proud to offer WinCan reporting to our video pipe inspection clients. Maintaining sewers starts with understanding sewer condition, and WinCan allows GPRS Project Managers to collect detailed, NASSCO-compliant inspection data. GPRS Project Managers not only inspect the interior condition of sewer pipes laterals, and manholes; they can also provide a map of their location. The GPRS Mapping & Modeling Department can provide detailed GPS overlays and CAD files. Our detailed WinCan/NASSCO reports contain screenshots of the interior condition of the pipe segments that we inspect, as well as a video file for further evaluation, documentation, and/or reference.
Can you locate pipes in addition to evaluating their integrity?
Yes, our SIM and NASSCO-certified Project Managers use CCTV camera-equipped sewer scoping technology affixed with sondes: instrument probes that allow them to ascertain the location of underground utilities from an inaccessible location. This allows them to use electromagnetic (EM) locating to map sewer systems at the same time they’re evaluating them for defects.
Does GPRS offer lateral launch services?
Yes, we offer lateral launch capabilities as part of our standard video pipe inspection services.
