The pipe inspection is geophysics. I did geophysics in Calgary one summer. That was when the oil boom crashed. All the offices around out office were suddenly emptied.
Geophysics only gives a 'hint' of what is actually happening. Right now, they are listing a zone for repair, following detection of a 'wire snap' . That is a steel wire termination in the coils they were using. I'm not making a speck of effort in figuring this out, but you don't do that with geophysics.
If they go in with more sensitive (expensive) equipment, they will find more wire snaps. It's the nature of the business, but these things are meaningless. Most of the signals are probably natural wire ends, there is no way to tell if it snapped.
I am talking through my hat here, and they can say that, if anybody read me. They never give technical details. As well, the repair method is useless. Pouring concrete on this leaves a 'cold joint' which doesn't stick. Of course, they will say they can overcome this little thing. This thin cover of concrete doesn't stop the rusting process, and provides no tensile strength. It is merely a wonderful thing for the PR department to fling around.
Of course, in legal space, this is all perfect, and these people are all wonderful.
ps. Let's assume a rational world - First, in 1967, when pre-stressed concrete was shown, there would be one crazy guy who said "You've got to be kidding!" Then, they would have stopped it, instead of it going all over the world. That didn't happen. Now, I was thinking of an instrument that goes floats through the pipe, and measures diameter with wheels and lasers. The pressure is always vibrating, and this instrument could look for soft zones, just like I want to do for earthquakes. A soft zone is the real thing. They would then wrap the section in rubber, with big stainless strapping. The pipe will last another few years, until they replace it. Such a perfect world!
ps. no comment from Montreal on what type of pipe they had.
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