March 27, 2009

INTERNATIONAL NO-DIG SHOW

Thousands of industry personnel from around the world will converge on Toronto for the International No-Dig Show, to be held March 29 to April 3, 2009 at the Toronto Sheraton Centre.

International No-Dig Show puts the spotlight on trenchless technology

IAN HARVEY

correspondent

TORONTO

You might call it a show to see what you don’t see.

Whatever you call it, the 27th annual International No-Dig Show, March 29 to April 3, 2009 at the Toronto Sheraton Centre, will unearth the benefit of trenchless technology for some 2,000 expected attendees, the first time the international show has been in Canada.

No-dig technology, of course, is gaining popularity for sewer and watermain work because it negates the need to rip up the roadway, avoiding the resulting traffic chaos, using less energy and allowing the job to be completed more quickly.

“We’ve had the North American show in Toronto and Montreal but this is the first time for the international show,” says engineer Joseph Loiacono, director of business development for Aqua-Pipe Sanexen Environmental Services Inc. in Quebec and 2009 International No-Dig program chairman. “No-dig is being used quite a lot in Canada, especially Ontario, and people may not even realize it because the impact is minimal.”

In addition to the 50,000 square feet of exhibitors’ space featuring the latest in trenchless technology and equipment, Loiacono says the highlight will be the presentation of technical papers and case studies looking at real life applications.

The areas covered will be pipe bursting, sewer lateral repair, cured-in-place pipe lining (CIPP), horizontal directional drilling (HDD) as well as the roll out of a new course covering all aspects of grouting and coating techniques.

“We’ve got five streams, 200 abstracts and 140 papers we’re looking at,” he says. “The key thing is that these are municipal engineers and contractors presenting and not manufacturers, so there’s no sales pitch here, just the facts about what they did and how it worked.”

He also expects attendees will dig deeper into the presentations, grilling presenters for more background and then taking that knowledge to the showroom floor where they can talk further with exhibitors.

The show is sponsored by the International Society for Trenchless Technology (ISTT) and its affiliate, the North American Society for Trenchless Technology (NASTT).

While trenchless has been around for more than 20 years it’s really gaining traction beyond sewer replacement and repair where it has been used the most, says Loiacono.

“With the infrastructure problems we have, no dig is being used more for water supply,” he says, while gas lines are another area of application.

Indeed, with the Walkerton water tragedy still top of mind and past evidence showing that during Britain’s 1995 drought, more than 30 per cent of potable water in some areas leaked out of rotting pipes, there’s a lot more interest in this area.

Still, in some areas, uptake of the trenchless techniques has been slow, he says, something the show hopes to address.

“Some municipal engineers are somewhat conservative so we’re trying to get them to look at the benefits,” he says. “The technology and equipment is evolving every year and improving. It has to.”

Despite the economic downtown, the industry association says 2009 and beyond still promises stability given the investment by all governments around the world in infrastructure and the demands to replace and repair critical utilities.

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