What happens when the as-builts are wrong, the utility markings are off, and the potholes don’t reveal any utilities?
In the worst-case scenario, damages occur.
The best-case scenario? You call for a second opinion and have the lines accurately located before digging or drilling by a private utility locator near you, like the team at GPRS.
Not All Utility Locates & Sewer Lateral Inspections are Created Equal
This exact scenario occurred in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, where the local township was tasked with locating private water lines and sanitary laterals connected to the main storm lines to residents’ homes before a directional drilling project could begin.
However, when the sanitary lateral line marks that the township made were potholed, the test holes displayed no laterals.
GPRS To The Rescue
As a result of this incident, the customer called out the SIM-certified utility locating and sewer lateral mapping team at GPRS. While on site, GPRS Project Manager Jarred Trice provided a solution to the issue. He did this by employing multiple forms of cutting-edge technology, ground penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic (EM) utility locators, and the Envirosight lateral launch robotic sewer crawler to accurately locate the water lines and sanitary laterals that were missed. As shown in the image below, the actual laterals were 5-10 feet from where the township had marked them, which led them to believe that the paint (mark-out) was put on the ground based on inaccurate and outdated as-built records versus actually locating and inspecting the lines manually with a robotic crawler and GPR.
The Benefits of Having Accurate Sewer Lateral Mapping
By calling out the team at GPRS, the customer benefited in multiple ways.
These Included:
1. Saved Time
2. Saved Money
3. Residents Were Undisturbed
4. Eliminated The Need for A Costly Trench
5. Kept Sewer Laterals Undamaged
6. Sewer & Water Line As-Builts Were Updated Via SiteMap®
The SIM-mandated GPRS approach employed by Trice saved time and prevented the need for a wide and costly trench in the middle of the road. Trenching on a public street would have been disruptive to residents’ lives and proved costly to the municipality. Using CCTV robotic crawlers, EM utility locators, and ground penetrating radar, GPRS was able to prevent residents from having unnecessary damage to their water and lateral lines, all while providing the municipality NASSCO-certified reports of each lateral line with defects and video feedback included.
The GPRS team mapped and digitally stored the geolocated data of the true location of the water and sewer laterals on site, providing the municipality and the customer with accurate and up-to-date as-built documentation of their lines to reference 24/7 on any tablet, smart phone, or other mobile device via SiteMap® (patent pending). SiteMap® houses all of GPRS’ 99.8% accurate utility maps and other data captured to provide a one-stop-shop and single source of truth for utility data, thus helping eliminate communication and information siloes among key stakeholders.
Why You Should Map Utilities & Sewer Lateral Lines to Prevent Utility Damages
Whether a project involves mapping laterals for a township or a private facility, anytime work is being performed around sewer lines and laterals, it is highly recommended by the Cross Bore Safety Association that pre and post-lateral mapping inspections are performed to ensure no damage occurs to existing lines. This best practice is recommended because it helps ensure with certainty that any lines in the zone of work were not negatively impacted during groundbreaking activities, including but not limited to: directional drilling, excavation, hand digging, or soil boring. By inspecting lines, as-builts can be updated, condition assessments can be completed, and NASSCO-certified reports can be provided for key stakeholders to review and provide critical data points to community or facility leadership. These inspections provide key information on the condition of the lines being inspected, with areas of concern such as root intrusion and blockage, cracks, cross bores, illicit flows, and joint offsets being identified during assessments.
Cost of Sewer Lateral Mapping Service
When it comes to determining the cost of a sewer lateral mapping service, you have multiple options to choose from. Renting or buying VPI equipment to either conduct the inspection yourself, or have one of your workers do it, seems like a natural way to keep a project budget and schedule under control. A closer look at the situation, however, reveals that the cost of paying for the rental or purchase, the amount of time and money you’d have to invest in proper training, and the risks involved in incorrectly identifying faults or damages within your sewer system, make hiring a professional the best option.
The Cost of Rental
A standard sewer lateral mapping robotic crawler system can cost upwards of $1,000 a day to rent. You also need to know how to operate the system. One-day sewer lateral mapping inspection training courses cost around $400 per person. These courses usually occur in a classroom setting, meaning your first actual field work will likely be on the job while you’re trying to complete a project. You also need to know how to interpret the data you receive and present it in a way that allows you or your client to craft a mitigation or repair plan. This can cost you upwards of $925 for a single two-day certification course through NASSCO depending on the type of training required for your project needs. So, even if you went through training and rented a crawler system for a single project, it could cost you upwards of $2,300 for equipment and training, not including time in the field that was lost to receive the proper training needed to operate the system.
The Cost Of Purchase
To purchase a sewer lateral mapping system, it could cost you upwards of $70,000. The technology behind sewer lateral mapping systems is constantly changing, so that expensive system will likely be out-of-date within a couple of years. There will, of course, be additional costs for maintenance and upkeep of the equipment. And you still need to get yourself or one of your employees trained and certified to conduct an inspection. That puts your cost to purchase equipment at approximately $73,000-$75,000 and a minimum of three days of training.
To avoid these additional costs, you can hire a sewer lateral mapping service company like GPRS who quotes on a per-jib basis because every system and project is different.
GPRS Provides Sewer Lateral Mapping Services
To mitigate the risk of cross bores and other issues wreaking havoc on our nation’s water and sewer infrastructure, the GPRS team provides non-destructive testing (NDT) through sewer lateral mapping services to view and gather information from the interiors of pipelines.
Our National Association of Sewer Service Companies (NASSCO)-certified Project Managers utilize the ROVVER X SAT II lateral launch camera to inspect lateral lines. Since sewer laterals are the pipes responsible for transporting wastewater from residences or businesses to the main public sanitary sewer, it is crucial that they remain clear and undamaged to prevent potential backups and sewer overflows that could lead to inconvenient or dangerous situations for businesses, municipalities, and facility managers alike.
The ROVVER X SAT II lateral launch system provides the GPRS team with extensive capabilities to map sewer laterals anywhere in the United States. It boasts a maximum crawl capability of 984 feet and can travel at speeds up to 98 feet per minute. Its array of onboard cameras and sensors transmits data to a control system, empowering our Project Managers to review video footage via WinCan Web while also marking out the location of the lateral on the surface with (EM) utility locators and GPR. This assists in the determination and identification of the exact location of underground cross bores, unauthorized flows, construction defects, and other issues potentially affecting the system's integrity.
Key Applications:
1 Inspection, Locating, and Mapping of Sewer Laterals
GPRS offers video inspections for sewer lateral interiors: assessing conditions and pinpointing lateral locations at the surface level.
2 Verification of Lateral Depths
Utilizing complementary technologies alongside sewer lateral mapping cameras, GPRS collaborates with municipalities, as well as excavation and boring companies to confirm pipe depths before construction begins. The pipe camera's sonde aids in surface location approximation, while ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic (EM) utility locators ensure precise depth and location determination.
3 Inspections of New and Existing Lateral Installations
Conducting inspections of newly installed lateral pipes as stated earlier in the article, is standard practice, ensuring proper installation and mitigation of damage to existing utilities. GPRS deploys its sewer lateral mapping services to evaluate the condition of pipes, particularly shallow drains, sewers, or plastic pipes, which are vulnerable to damage from heavy construction traffic.
4 Cross Bore Inspection Services
GPRS performs pre and post-inspection of pipes using lateral launch camera technology to locate cross bores. This approach, increasingly adopted by various states and municipalities, serves as an effective video inspection method before and after the boring process.
From towering buildings to underground sewer systems, GPRS Intelligently Visualizes The Built World® to ensure your water and wastewater projects remain on time, on budget, and safe.
What can we help you visualize?
Frequently Asked Questions
Does GPRS Just Map Sewer Laterals?
GPRS's team of Project Managers are accredited by NASSCO in video pipe inspection (VPI), lateral sewer, and MACP manhole inspections. Not only can we provide inspection of sewer laterals, we can locate and assess all other sewer lines with the capability to provide NASSCO-certified pipe inspection services for pipes 4 inches in diameter or larger, with up to 1,500 feet of inspection length, and, dependent on location, as deep as 40 feet with our super sonde.
Can I Have an Educational Water & Wastewater Presentation for My Team On How To Prevent Damages?
Yes, you can! Water & Sewer Damage Awareness Week, is a GPRS-sponsored safety initiative designed to help water and wastewater system operators take a more proactive approach to maintaining their infrastructure. From October 21-25, 2024, GPRS safety experts will travel across the country delivering free safety presentations to municipalities, engineers, facility managers, property management groups, and anyone else who is ready to regain control of their water and wastewater infrastructure. While these presentations are currently only for one main week of the year, we are willing to accommodate teams based off interest. Click here to schedule your free WSDAW presentation today!
What Deliverables Does GPRS Offer When Providing Sewer Lateral Mapping Services?
GPRS is proud to offer WinCan reporting to our sewer lateral mapping clients. Maintaining sewers starts with understanding sewer condition, and WinCan allows GPRS Project Managers to collect detailed, NASSCO-compliant inspection data. This data is accessible via SiteMap® after GPRS Project Managers upload the line location data to the system. This is so you not only are provided with the inspection data of the interior condition of your sewer pipes, laterals, and manholes – but also an accurate and up to date as-built map of your sewer and lateral lines for future design, digging, and maintenance purposes.
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