Some of the technologies like pipe jacking, and auger and thrust boring had been around for many years. What these methods had in common was that they did not require an open cut trench to be dug to carry out the work. In the years that followed we saw the introduction of microtunnelling, guided drilling, bursting and many lining technologies.
To all of us in the business this was going to be the dawn of a new age of trenchless installation. Everything appeared to be in our favour and we had tools to deal with most situations. All the reports told us that there was a very large market with a significant percentage of the underground pipe infrastructure ageing, neglected and needing to be replaced or renovated. At the surface, there was an ever increasing amount of traffic and congestion on inadequate streets and roads.
Quite obviously the authorities and public would come rushing to our door to avoid their streets and environments being disrupted by dirty, dangerous and disruptive trenching.
It did not quite turn out to be as we had expected.
On the positive side undoubtedly the market has expanded. There has been a lot of technical progress and a huge expansion of technology. Today we are able to install a very wide range of pipes, ducts and cables ranging from 50 mm to 5,000 mm over long lengths in practically every type of soil condition. We are able to inspect the smallest of diameters remotely to determine their condition. We are then able to rehabilitate or replace defective gravity and pressure pipes using an extensive choice of technologies and materials.
However the penetration of the market is still quite small in many areas and countries. For example, the US for a number of reasons was slow to embrace microtunnelling methods for sewer construction. It was not until the mid-nineties that the market began to develop, and with lots of encouragement and competition from equipment companies like Soltau and Iseki, it reached an annual installation length of 37 km. By 2000 it had not increased but had slumped to just over 7 km. Currently the market has recovered to something approaching the mid-nineties level. However Iseki and Soltau are no longer operating in North America. Even the peak length represents something less than half of one per cent of the total annual sewer installation. The percentage of deep and difficult sewers where microtunnelling would be cost-effective in a developed environment is typically in the range of 5-10 per cent of the total length.
The sewer rehabilitation market in the US has achieved a much higher rate of market penetration. This kind of picture, good in parts, is repeated worldwide. We have to ask ourselves why?
There a number of reasons, some of which are associated with clients:
* Not considered at the conceptual stage but as an afterthought,
* Contract documents and specifications based on open trench techniques,
* Clients and their advisors who prefer to use “÷tried and tested’ methods – a euphemism for how grandpa did it. Innovation could get you sued,
* Obsession with lowest bid price – however lacking in expertise, poor the performance and extensive the disruption. Lowest bid has only passing relationship to lowest final cost, and,
* A narrow definition of project costs
* Clients with no regard for third party and environmental costs.
However there are a whole lot of additional instances where we in the industry have created a rod for own back and where we “Could do better”:
* Over-enthusiastic salesmen with exaggerated claims and minimal technical understanding,
* Poor design by inexperienced engineers,
* Consultants driven by their bottom line financial results and not engineering. Cheaper to use the existing designs and boiler plate specifications,
* Too many unnecessary failures and claims by contractors,
* Some Trenchless Technologies are proprietary and the owners create barriers to comparing products, and
* Contradictory information sources
The No-Dig Student Award for 2007 went to a Czech young lady, Lucie Nendalova. She produced an interesting paper and insight into why, at least in the Czech Republic, the market penetration for trenchless is underperforming. She undertook a survey of potential users and some of her findings were:
* Literature produced by trenchless organisations for clients and designers was often unclear and incomplete, with key parameters needed to compare products missing,
* Technical standards and specifications were often claimed to be protected technical know-how.
* Decision makers are for the most part not given the information in a form in which they can understand the basic pros and cons.
* Often misleading information on total job costs.
* Application to inappropriate situations resulting in failures.
* Poor performance in relation to claims
In the Czech Republic, a member of the European Union, they have to conform to EU directives and this has raised environmental and ecological standards and awareness. It is in this type of situation that Trenchless Technology has found a market. In the general market the impression is that Trenchless Technology is expensive and not competitive.
An article in Trenchless Australia October/November 2006, Trenchless Technology and Asset Management in Australia, identified the problems in a very similar fashion:
* Need to educate potential users of the technologies about the benefits.
* Poor information/ knowledge sharing
* Lack of confidence.
* Improvement of quality of work.
A main challenge was identified as “spreading the word amongst those that could make use of the technologies but are yet to fully appreciate the benefits”.
I would make two points:
Firstly in my travels around the world, I am always surprised to find how many decision-makers have not heard of Trenchless Technology. They are surprised and interested when you explain that you can lay or rehabilitate a pipe without digging a trench. One rather telling reaction often is “If you can do that why I have not heard or seen this happening?”
At the moment we are pretty good at “÷preaching to the choir’ – those who are in the business – but we need to get our message out to the whole congregation. In this case, the much wider public – not just those who might use the technologies.
My second point is that we are good at identifying the problem of the lack of market penetration but less so in finding effective solutions.
We need to find ways to direct our message and information to specific audiences including the decision makers and the general public about what we can do and the benefits to them. There is such a diversity of technologies and companies that no one company on its own can develop this kind of material. I know that the ISTT and the country societies are aware of the broader problem but to date their efforts have not had the success for which they hoped.
In one area “The Microtunnelling and Pipe Jacking Compendium” is a response and contribution to this situation. I and fellow authors Martin Herrenknecht and Werner Suhm were conscious that we needed to address different sectors in different ways. A principal objective in writing this compendium was to try and provide unbiased information to a whole spectrum of people ranging from the newcomer to the well informed. This would have several advantages in that each volume would be directed at a specific audience. Instead of a massive great book that tries to be all things to all people, each volume would be a user-friendly book profusely illustrated in colour and moderately priced.
Volume 1 which is available now is an introduction to jacked pipe installation and provides the reader with basic information but rather what can be done than how to do it. This is directed at a broad audience who need to understand the technology but not all the technical detail.
Because of the diagrams and tone, this volume has been found to be appealing to those members of the public who are not engineers.
Subsequent volumes are directed at more specific audiences including the designer, the contractor and the client with much greater in-depth inputs to meet their needs. What is interesting is because of the diagrams and the way it is written those members of the public who are not engineers, who have seen this first volume, have found it interesting.
Back in 1992 I was the joint author of a book published in USA called “An Introduction to Trenchless Technology”. It sold a lot of copies for a technical book. Needless to say it is now well out of date. However a new popular science type book with a sexier title aimed at a broad audience could be more widely distributed. It needs to tell the audience what is possible and how it would benefit society economically and environmentally. We have plenty of books, papers and literature aimed at those in the business – now we need something for the rest. We have some pretty interesting technologies, machines and stories to tell to the world about working under the ground without disrupting their lives or their environment.