In the March edition of NASSCO Corner, my predecessor Irvin Gemora communicated the importance of verifying the credentials of contractors certified in NASSCO’s Pipeline Assessment Cer-tification Program (PACP).
As NASSCO’s newly appointed executive director, I plan to bring a number of important initiatives to fruition, and one of them is maintaining the integrity and quality of PACP. Besides ensuring that the people doing the work are truly PACP-certified, a larger area for concern is the potentially decreasing quality of pipeline assessments completed under PACP.
For example, consultants are expending excessive quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) costs to review video and data just to make sure they meet PACP standards. When these deliverables do not meet PACP standards, they must be revised to meet customer specifications, as well as to provide a satisfactory assessment of the pipelines. These are issues that will remain at the top of my agenda.
NASSCO introduced PACP in 2001, and it has become the national standard for the collection of CCTV data, revolutionizing the pipeline assessment industry. But as with any set of standards, PACP needs to be monitored to make sure standards are met consistently and completely.
NASSCO has a responsibility to the industry to maintain the quality of training and provide trainers and operators with the tools to meet PACP requirements. Steps we are taking include:
• Improving the level of the PACP training by adding videos and practical exercises.
• Formalizing the recertification process to include online com-ponents as well as proctored testing in locations in and near all metropolitan areas.
• Providing online exercises accessible to all PACP-certified operators for practice and reference.
• Assessing in-house training to ensure that it meets NASSCO standards.
NASSCO is not alone in this effort. As an industry, we need to take the appropriate steps to minimize the level of substandard work that is packaged as PACP compliant. These efforts include:
• Providing appropriate levels of QA/QC before deliverables are considered complete.
• Neither submitting, nor ac-cepting, nor approving payment of substandard work.
• Training operators by pointing out errors found during QA/QC (operators do not want to perform substandard work).
• Ensuring the quality of in-house training, without which none of the other steps matter.
Not everyone will be happy with these steps. Training and QA/QC efforts can detract from short-term productivity goals and can add expense. However, these efforts always have long-term benefits that far outweigh short-term goals.
As PACP matures, our industry as a whole needs to understand the challenges involved with obtaining PACP-compliant data and reports, and take responsibility in making sure CCTV providers are properly trained and held accountable to meet PACP standards.
Ted DeBoda is the newly appointed executive director of NASSCO. He can be reached at director@nassco.org. NASSCO is located at 11521 Cronridge Drive, Suite J, Owings Mills, MD 21117.
