No Dig India Show 2024
14th International Conference & Exhibition on Trenchless Technology
Solutions for Water, Wastewater, Oil & Gas, Electricity & Telecommunication Utility Industry
02nd & 03rd December 2024
Hitex Exhibition Center, Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA
Why dig Trenches when there are better solutions
The executing agencies implementing Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects are engaged in lot of projects which are to be executed in difficult urban terrain. To facilitate the same and to train the staffs of these agencies on the latest technology, ADB is conducting the subject training programme covering the following topics in different cities in accordance with IndSTT:
- Basics of Trenchless Technology Techniques
- Subsurface Utility Engineering and Geotechnical Techniques
- Technology Selection Process & Technique Specifications
- Pipe Line Condition Assessment Techniques
- Guidelines to establish Contract Conditions for design and construction by Trenchless Techniques
- Trenchless Project Economics & Cost Comparison with conventional construction techniques
- Trenchless Project Execution Guidelines
- Trenchless Project Supervision & Conclusion Guidelines
- Participant Interactions and Question& Answer Session
Topic Backgrounds:
(A) Basics of Trenchless Technology Techniques
Trenchless Technology is the branch of applied engineering that deals with construction technology for developing, maintaining & managing subsurface networks without excavating continuous trenches.
It can be helpful in constructing underground networks in difficult/inaccessible locations like crossing of rivers, ravines, gorges, densely populated urban areas, important structures & highways etc. Further, with this technology safety & security of buried networks can also be managed in a better way. Intent of inclusion of this topic training is to provide guidelines to the participants on the available and approved trenchless techniques and the mode in which they can be used to meet the project challenges for the best outputs.
(B) Subsurface Utility Engineering and Geotechnical Techniques
Subsurface utility engineering, a highly-efficient and nondestructive engineering practice, assists designers of the trenchless technology projects in locating and mapping subsurface utilities thereby managing risks associated with underground utility construction.
Subsurface utility engineering combines geophysics, surveying, civil engineering and asset management technologies. The technologies include Magnetic sensing equipment, Sonic equipment, Acoustic equipment, Ground penetrating radar, Vertical Data Retrieval Vehicles for "safe dig" operations, Nondestructive vacuum excavation equipment and Radio frequency detection. Intent of inclusion of this topic training is to provide guidelines to the participants on the various techniques available for subsurface investigations so that they are able to evaluate the ground conditions in a better way.
(C) Pipe Line Condition Assessment
Pipelines condition continuous deteriorates which gets accelerated with the age and other external or internal factors. So a pipe with a small crack one day can be a completely collapsed pipe few years down the line. This process can be arrested with proper repair and maintenance on a regular basis. The decision to repair and maintain heavily banks upon the present condition. And therefore assessment of the existing conditions of the pipe line is important prior to execution through trenchless techniques. Intent of inclusion of this topic training is to provide guidelines to the participants on the pipeline condition assessment techniques and the ways and means to evaluate their assets in more objective manner.
(D) Contract Conditions for Consultants and Contractors
The contractual condition of the trenchless projects must be determined after assessing that a project is technically and economically feasible. This task can often be performed based on experience with past projects and close coordination between the engineers and qualified contractors. If the project appears to be contractually feasible, a set of contract, or bid, documents must be prepared. The contract documents are used to solicit bids from contractors and to govern construction of the crossing. Contract documents clearly present the technical, commercial, and legal requirements of the project. Intent of inclusion of this topic training is to provide guidelines to the participants on the mode of developing contract conditions, prequalifying service providers, maintaining a central database of the service providers so that they can be invited for the bidding on an immediate basis, reducing the time and costs of communications.
(E) Project Economics
Project economics plays a vital role in the construction and maintenance process of any infrastructure project. Direct and indirect (Social) costs impact available finances, repayment schedules, and return on investment. Even though the direct costs of a particular option may be less but if the indirect costs are higher the overall project deliverables might not be met and in the life cycle analysis the project can fail. It is therefore imperative that the project planning engineers and officers are appropriately sensitized about Trenchless Project economics.
As the competing option of trenchless is open cut (conventional) working methods which employs less expensive inputs and manpower compared to trenchless techniques. In addition some of the trenchless techniques are patented or engage expensive inputs and manpower leading to higher direct costs, at times. But as the technology is aimed at reducing the social costs, the overall costs may be less. Intent of inclusion of this topic training is to provide guidelines to the participants on the comparative costing of different options with a larger emphasis on the unit costs of trenchless techniques. This is expected to assist the project engineer to arriving at the best possible solution for a given set of project requirement.
(F) Project Execution Guidelines
Trenchless projects depend on several critical inputs that can make or mar any trenchless project. Common examples of such inputs include trenchless equipment, skills of operating manpower, consumables, installed materials, and other related issues like working space availability, or urban settings, or other constraints/impediments. It is important to address issue related requirements for a successful project. Failure to address the related issues would lead to a failed project and a damaged surrounding zone. This section provides information about the critical inputs on project execution and provides guidelines / inputs for addressing them. Intent of inclusion of this topic training is to provide guidelines to the participants on the way forward on project execution activities.
(G) Project Supervision Guidelines
Supervision of subsurface projects by the dedicated team of specialists is one of the primary key for the success of any trenchless project as it helps in mitigating the project risks to a large extent. The guidelines for project supervision for trenchless works outline necessary practices to ensure that the works are constructed safely, to time and budget and to quality standards that guarantee that the completed works meet the clients' expectations.
ADB conducted the subject training programme in collaboration with IndSTT in different cities in August 2011 and March 2012. In this series, so far two training program had been conducted jointly by ADB and IndSTT at New Delhi and Kolkata respectively. For more details about the programmes use following links.
1. 1st ADB Training Program, New Delhi
2. 2nd ADB Training Program, Kolkata