The Pitometer Group of ADS was recently successful in locating a leak for the city of Chicago in a 36-in. PCCP watermain. As service providers to the city of Chicago for over 40 years, ADS is now able to detect leaks in pipes as large as 60-in., thanks to a new large diameter leak detection technology.
This new technology pinpoints leaks in large diameter mains without the set-up intensive, and intrusive, techniques used by other technologies. The technology utilizes the Echologics LD Leakfinder for large diameter leaks.
The city asked ADS to locate a potential leak on a 36-in. concrete main in September 2007. The leak was showing in a basement of a nearby building. Echologics Hydrophone sensors were placed on the hydrants off the 36-in. main at a distance of 829 ft. After implementing the signal processing algorithms, the leak came up instantly, and was located to within inches. The leak was found to be located at a concrete to iron adaptor with a torn gasket.
ADS has proven they can find leaks in large pipes without inserting equipment into the pipe. It provides leak detection services to the city of Chicago as part of a hydraulic engineering services contract that also includes, loss of head tests, flow and pressure measurements, flow profiling, hydraulic gradients, fire flow tests and valve exercising.
Source: ADS, LLC
