Staying on Top of Education

NASSCO will release updated and expanded PACP manual in 2013.

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Keeping pace with new information, technology and methods is critical to NASSCO's focus on setting industry standards for the assessment and rehabilitation of underground pipelines and to assure the continued acceptance and growth of trenchless technologies. Updating content used to inform and instruct the Pipeline Assessment and Certification Program (PACP) is no exception.

PACP is the North American standard for pipeline defect identification and assessment, providing consistency to the methods in which pipeline conditions are identified, evaluated and managed. The goal of PACP is to have pipeline system owners create a comprehensive database to properly identify, plan, prioritize, manage and renovate their pipelines based on condition evaluation.

The ultimate objective of PACP is to ensure that each and every project is a success. As such, the quality of the education and training is critical. It is imperative that PACP educational content be updated and refined as we collect more information and better data.

NASSCO is preparing to revise the PACP manual by the end of 2013. We have established a team of industry experts to review all comments made to the current PACP manual, Version 6.0.1, which was released in 2010. In addition to content changes, we intend to further enhance the PACP training with an overview of technologies such as sidewall scanning, radar, sonar, laser profiling and basic information on pipe sizes and shapes.

In order to carefully and completely make revisions that will keep the manual relevant for the next four to five years, we will also incorporate as many software changes as possible, and evaluate the manual's format for easier updates moving forward. Both PACP and MACP will be included in this comprehensive review, and changes will be made to both the training program and exams.

In addition to the team that NASSCO has assembled, we would also like to solicit comments from current PACP users. In order to effectively gather comments and suggestions, NASSCO will be conducting workshops at the 2013 Underground Construction Technology Conference in Houston, as well as at the 2013 Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo in Indianapolis. For more information, please contact Diego Calderon at diego@nassco.org.

Ted DeBoda is executive director of NASSCO. He can be reached at director@nassco.org.



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