In early eighties and speaking generally, the only internal pipeline inspection was either done by the sewer inspection companies, who would be inspecting mainly dry sewer pipe sections over short distances; typically not exceeding 150m and who would stop in the event the pipe became surcharged until the camera would become submerged along with the oil industry support companies who would run ‘intelligent pigs’ though the oil pipes to gauge weld integrity, pipe wall thickness and problems in to assess pipeline longevity and safe operating pressure.

Currently the river companies who had been largely oblivious to the internal condition of their pipelines, adits, aqueducts and tunnels were beginning to have concerns regarding the integrity of their assets, a few of which had been constructed in the Victorian times or maybe more recently during the early fifties coupled with never been inspected and were unsuccessfully trying to find companies and/or equipment which could perform such surveys.

Sometimes these folks were capable of de-water the pipelines and if large enough diameter, they might send a confined space team in to do a visual survey; such surveys were obviously fraught with potential dangers, such as that included the danger of collapse, flooding as well as the accumulation of toxic gasses.

De-watering came with its very own set of potential risks for the structural integrity in the concrete, tunnelled and brick constructed pipelines; in many instances, small leaks produced by displaced joints, erosion and localised damage etc. enabled the leaking water to discover a path through the ground well as over quite a few years, earth would be pale from around the pipe, often producing large water filled voids forming throughout the not in the pipeline.

The newly de-watered pipeline which will get partially dependent on the head water inside the pipeline (looking to push the walls out), to keep up its structural integrity, could suddenly be subjected to several a great deal of water not in the pipeline (looking to push the walls in), creating localised aspects of external underhand, which will often bring about pipe failure and localised collapse, causing subsidence in the ground over the pipeline manifesting as holes in your yard that could appear ‘over-night’.

About on this occasion there was an increasing demand through the Water Companies to transmit divers up water filled pipes armed with CCTV cameras, to survey as far for their nerve or umbilical length would permit.

In just a very short time period the HSE Diving Executive, showed an interest in the safety facet of sticking divers up pipes and eventually an excursion array of around 30m as being a maximum was considered safe, providing that the mandatory security precautions were set up.

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