One of the best ways to improve your technical knowledge is just around the corner. During NASSCO’s Annual Conference, scheduled for Feb. 11-13 in Savannah, Ga., NASSCO’s Technical Day on Friday, Feb. 13 will provide an opportunity for NASSCO members to refresh their knowledge and learn what’s new in the world of trenchless technology.

This year’s event will be the most exciting one yet. The morning will kick off with two technical tracks, outlined below.

Safety, Risk Assessment and Municipal Issues

Construction Safety and Risk Assessment: A discussion on the importance of daily construction crew tailgate meetings including focusing on safety and hazard identification and technology risk assessment.

Health and Safety Academy: Review of the availability of online health and safety training programs for busy construction personnel.

Lessons Learned in Augusta, Ga.: Their successes and failures in sustaining their collection system. Utility Infrastructure Challenges in the Urban Forest – Making a Difference Now: Social, economic and environmental health attributes related to utility maintenance in rights of way.

Resolving the Dilemma of Aging Sewer Laterals with a Private/Public Partnership: Aging and failing private sewer laterals are increasingly problematic for both the local homeowners and system owners. An innovative private/public partnership is a possible solution.

Collection System Inspection, Maintenance and Rehabilitation

New Developments in Side Scan Technology: A presentation of current advances in the side scan technology for pipeline condition documentation.

Sewer Line Cleaning Techniques – Cleaning Nozzles, Approach & Best Practice: Discussion of different nozzles and when and where they are best applied.

Manhole Technologies, Inspection and Testing: A presentation on a variety of topics including composite manhole adjusting rings, grates and corresponding frames as a replacement for cast iron, and manhole rehab testing and inspection.

Integrated Heat Sensor Technology within Medium to Large Diameter CIPP Installations: Pros, cons and lessons learned in continuous temperature monitoring from a contractor’s perspective. Discussion of knowledge gained in the field and successes as well as challenges that led to modifications in both the product and techniques to use the product.

The Shift from Reactive to Proactive Wastewater Management Best Practices: Brief abstract on GIS and cloud-based software solutions using today’s proven Internet and networking technology to make wastewater data searchable, visible and actionable in ways never before possible, without capital expense.

The technical track sessions, which are designed to include time for a member question-and-answer period, will be followed with a keynote speech by Rod Lovett, chief of Wastewater Collection and Transmission, Miami-Dade County, Fla. He will discuss one of the country’s largest consent decrees and how issues are being addressed, as well as successes in using trenchless technology to reduce flow to three major treatment plants.

The morning will conclude with a forum composed of a panel of municipal representatives who will discuss their key issues as they relate to collection system rehabilitation including mainlines, laterals and manholes.

NASSCO’s Annual Conference and Technical Day are open to NASSCO members. If you are not yet a NASSCO member or want to sign up for the 2015 Annual Conference, please visit www.nassco.org.