Littleton hosts a first in the U.S.

If you were driving around town last weekend you may have noticed an orange truck with German license plates and strange wording on the side.
The truck belongs to Janssen Technology, a German company that is using Littleton’s sewer pipes to demonstrate a method of repairing pipes using a new state of the art process.
Littleton is the first stop in the United States for demonstrating the process. After completing their work here they will move on to Greensboro and then to Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.
“[I] feel so honored that we got chosen as the first place in the U.S. to try this,” stated Betty Willis, Littleton Town Commissioner and Water Sewer Commissioner. The demonstration is not costing the town anything.
Janssen’s method involves using their newly developed small robotic device to crawl through the lines, spot the areas that need repair and then repairing them. They call it the JaGoSeal system.
In the sewer repair business Janssen’s method is referred to as “trench less” or “no dig” repairing. It involves using state of the art technology combining mechanical and computer equipment to repair sewer lines and lateral connections to the sewer lines. Lateral connections are places where branch waste lines are connected to the main waste line.
Willis spent a day with the Janssen technicians. She was impressed with the futuristic approach to a common problem. “It was like watching a surgeon at work,” she stated in refereeing to the equipment used in the process. The pipe robot has a camera on it that allows them to check the pipes. The camera has a water jet on it to keep the lens clean as it goes through the system.
According to Jochen Stog, representing Janssen Technology, the process is well established in Europe and they are now expanding into this country.
The repair process is done from the inside of the pipe out. They inject a two component silica resin into the damaged lateral area that expands and seals to the pipe. It is designed to expand outside of the damaged area to help prevent a future problem.
According to Willis this new method is better than another method already tried in Littleton to repair the pipes. Janssen repaired eight connections out of the more than 300 in Littleton.
The equipment used in the demonstration came by ship from Germany. They were faced with a not so unusual problem that when their equipment was off loaded from the ship, their generator was left on the ship and had to be retrieved at the next port.
The JaGoSeal system has been used to repair more than 11,000 lateral connections in Europe. Janssen will be competing against several U.S. companies who use various methods to repair connections. Trench less repair equipment and companies are common, no dig repairs are more limited.
Littleton is faced with repairing the sewer lines and Janssen’s method is one way of doing it. They will use the results from the last week’s tests to see if this method will do the job.