Grading and Excavation Contractor

By Kristen Kalich

As the school year ends, students get anxious for the impending summer vacation. For school systems, summer is the ideal time to begin maintenance and construction projects.

The Moreno Valley Unified School District in Moreno Valley, CA, did just that. The school district decided to construct lunch shelters, or outdoor covered cafeterias, at 20 sites at several of its schools.

The school system’s supervisor for maintenance and operations suggested that it should hire a contractor to locate utility lines at the proposed lunch shelter sites. He thought locating the utility lines in advance would help save the school district a significant amount of money in changes to materials used and redesign costs.

The SR-20 provides information that the ground-penetrating radar does not always give.

The SR-20 can save the customer 10% of the total cost of the project by avoiding unnecessary potholing.

The school district signed a contract with All Flow Solutions, a general engineering contractor that specializes in utility line locating, horizontal directional drilling, pipe burst repair, pipe lining, vacuum excavating, and infrastructure repair for the public sector.

All Flow is co-owned by cousins Preston McCormick and Rock Tremblay. McCormick is a West Point–educated engineer and manages all the locating projects for All Flow, while Tremblay is a master plumber and plumbing contractor. Established in 2002, All Flow Solutions has eight employees and 10 trucks. Each vehicle is designed to manage specific types of projects.

Because it signed a large contract with Moreno Valley Unified School District, All Flow Solutions wanted to reassess its equipment and procedures that would be needed for the project. All Flow also found that hiring private locating contractors could be costly.

The company decided to look into purchasing a utility line locator to increase its productivity and profitability. All Flow researched a variety of locators and decided to add the Ridgid SeekTech SR-20 utility line locator, from Ridge Tool Company, to its business.

“I decided to purchase the SR-20 locator because I found it easier to use compared to other locators. Also, we are pleased with the quality of the other equipment that we own,” said McCormick.

All Flow has the Ridgid NaviTrack line locator, which is used to locate the Ridgid SeeSnake video inspection system. The Ridgid SeeSnake video inspection system, used in conjunction with the NaviTrack, is a miniature camera attached to a push-rod that allows the user to see deep inside drain lines, conduits and other types of piping in order to determine the cause and location of blockages.

Based on similar technology of the NaviTrack, the SeekTech SR-20 uses a combination of multi-directional antennas, a revolutionary mapping display, and state-of-the-art processing to provide more information to effectively and easily locate underground utilities. The SR-20 not only traces transmitted frequencies, it also offers advanced passive modes that allow users to search for other metallic lines that might be present.

The SR-20’s unique mapping display and audible tones help guide the user by showing target-line direction and changes in direction as they occur, left-right guidance arrows, signal strength, and a proximity number that increases as the locator gets closer to the target.

McCormick believes that the SeekTech SR-20’s four integrated features give him the confidence he needs when locating and that “if it was just one feature, I wouldn’t have the level of accuracy that I would be comfortable with.”

At one of the school district’s middle schools, McCormick located in a cement area between two buildings where the lunch shelter was to be built. Locating passively at 60 Hz, he encountered a situation where the receiver’s readings indicated distortion.

Using the added information provided by the SR-20’s display, McCormick was able to determine where he was tracing an actual utility line and where the distortion was leading him astray. The indicators provided validation that was he was on the electrical line, 2 feet away from the previously identified location.

As a result of using the SeekTech SR-20, McCormick uses the locator to verify information provided by All Flow’s ground penetrating radar.

“The SR-20 provides information that the ground-penetrating radar does not always give. The penetrating radar can only locate lines that are 3 to 4 feet down, and the SR-20 locates deeper,” said McCormick.

The SeekTech SR-20 has proven to be an asset for All Flow. According to McCormick, for each site that All Flow locates, the SR-20 saves the customer 10% of the total cost of the project by avoiding unnecessary potholing and repairing of utility lines that might have been hit due to poor locates. On the Moreno Valley Unified School District project, McCormick located and marked the utilities before construction began. By doing it this way, the architect could redesign the shelters’ dimensions and footings and where they were going to be built to avoid complications of hitting a utility line, which is where the customer saves money, says McCormick.

Using the SR-20 on the school district project has not only saved the customer money but it also has helped All Flow grow its customer base. The Moreno Valley Unified School District was so pleased with All Flow’s work, that it recommended it to WLC Construction Services Inc. of Rancho Cucamonga, CA. WLC is installing portable classrooms and needs to determine points of connection and utility locates for areas of excavation.

“Because we use the SR-20, we are able to bring positive results to our customers, and that is the best form of advertising for All Flow. Prospective customers can be assured that they are going to get what they pay for,” says McCormick.

Since using the SeekTech SR-20 and experiencing such successful results, All Flow Solutions decided to remarket itself and now offers a three-tiered service model of ground-penetrating radar, locating, and pot-holing. All Flow developed a new marketing strategy around the SR-20, by branding locating as ground-truthing, a term McCormick learned as the commander of ODA592, 5th Special Forces Group. During the first Gulf War, the 5th Special Forces Group perfected ground-truthing, a special reconnaissance technique.

“The SR-20 has been invaluable to our business. It has more than paid for itself by growing our profits and our customer base,” says McCormick.

Based in Berea, OH, author Kristen Kalich writes on technical subjects.

GEC - May 2008

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