Meet PICA at UESI Pipelines 2026 Conference, August 1-5, Detroit, MI

PICA Corp is exhibiting and presenting at the UESI Pipelines 2026 Conference, August 1-5, 2026, at Huntington Place Convention Center in Detroit, Michigan. PICA presents at the Large Diameter Pipeline workshop on Saturday, August 1, from 10:15 to 10:45 AM, where attendees can watch a live demonstration of PICA’s Remote Field Testing (RFT) tools operating inside a real pipe segment. The PICA team will also be in the exhibit hall all week.

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What is the UESI Pipelines 2026 Conference?

UESI Pipelines is the main annual North American conference for pipeline engineering, organized by the Utility Engineering & Surveying Institute (UESI), one of nine specialty institutes of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Utility and pipeline owners, consulting engineers, contractors, manufacturers, and researchers meet each year to compare notes on planning, designing, constructing, renewing, and managing pipeline assets.

The 2026 edition lands in Detroit, with a planning committee co-chaired by Michelle Macauley, P.E. (Macauley Expert Services) and Jody Caldwell, P.E., Chief Planning Officer at the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA). The full program of workshops, technical sessions, and tours is posted at pipelinesconference.org/program.

For PICA, this is the one conference where the entire large-diameter pressurized pipe community is in a single building. If your utility owns PCCP, bar-wrapped pipe, steel, or cast iron transmission mains, the people who assess, rehabilitate, and manage those assets will all be in Detroit that week.

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PICA’s session at the Large Diameter Pipeline Workshop, Saturday, August 1

The Large Diameter Pipeline workshop is a full-day pre-conference session focused on tools and technologies for assessing large diameter pressurized pipelines, with both tool providers and utility representatives at the table. The morning covers low-, medium- and high-resolution assessment technologies. After lunch, the format flips: pipeline owners hold a guided discussion about the real challenges of managing their buried assets.

The morning agenda includes presentations from Insight Water Technologies, Xylem (Pure Technologies), Rosenxt Linegy, Acquaint, and APPIA, closing with a panel discussion at 11:45. PICA presents at 10:15-10:45 AM, right after the mid-morning networking break.

This workshop format suits PICA well. Slide decks about inspection technology all look alike; the differences only show up when you talk about physics, data quality, and what happens on a real job site. A room built for technical discussion between tool providers and the utilities that hire them is exactly where condition assessment decisions should get made.

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A live RFT demonstration in a real pipe segment

PICA’s session is not just slides. The team is bringing a physical pipe segment and running an RFT tool through it live, so workshop attendees can see how remote field electromagnetic measurement actually works: how the tool travels, how the signal passes through the full pipe wall, and how defects change the response.

RFT is a through-transmission electromagnetic technology. The signal crosses the entire pipe wall, which means one pass captures both internal and external wall condition simultaneously, through liners, scale, cement, and epoxy coatings, without cleaning the pipe to bare metal. For prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP), RFT detects all three deterioration mechanisms in a single deployment: broken prestressing wires, cylinder wall loss, and loss of pre-load on pipe segments. For metallic pipe, it maps remaining wall thickness continuously along the full run.

PICA’s RFT tool family covers pipe diameters from 2 to 96 inches. Pipelines smaller than 36 inches can be inspected live and in service, with flow reduced to manage tool speeds of 5 to 20 feet per minute. Larger pipelines, 36 to 96 inches, are inspected out of service with the EMIT and RAFT tools, which are assembled inside the pipe through standard access points. If you want to see how this plays out on an actual utility program, read the TRWD case study on RFT for PCCP inspection or PICA’s work on RFT for bar-wrapped pipelines.

Come with questions. The demonstration is the rare chance to challenge the physics in person rather than take a brochure’s word for it.

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The Boneyard tour: Detroit is the right city for this conference

The post-conference technical tour on Wednesday, August 5, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM goes to the Wayne State University Pipeline Laboratory, known in the industry as the Boneyard. The tour is hosted by the Great Lakes Water Authority, whose collaboration with Wayne State makes the lab a working test bed for real pipeline research.

Two things on the tour matter to anyone responsible for large-diameter mains. First, full-scale demonstrations of condition assessment and rehabilitation technologies, on real pipe rather than conference-floor mockups. Second, a dissected PCCP section: an open cross-section showing the prestressing wires, steel cylinder, and concrete core that make PCCP both strong and quietly vulnerable. Most utility engineers have never seen the inside of the pipe type that carries their highest-consequence water. This is the chance.

One caution: tour capacity is limited and attendance is application-based. Submitting the form does not guarantee a spot; applications are reviewed and selected applicants are notified. Apply early through the conference site.

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Visit the PICA team in the exhibit hall

Beyond the workshop, the PICA team will be in the exhibit hall throughout the conference. Bring your pipeline problem: an aging PCCP transmission main, a force main you cannot take out of service, a cast iron network with a break history, or a plant line nobody has inspected since commissioning. PICA’s service tiers run from in-service acoustic pre-screening through Near Field Testing (NFT) and high-resolution RFT, and the right answer depends on your pipe material, diameter, access, and operating constraints. A ten-minute booth conversation with the actual specs of your line will get you further than any general presentation.

If you want a guaranteed time slot with the team, book ahead: call 1-800-661-0127 or email [email protected] before the show.

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Why this conference matters for Great Lakes utilities

Much of the large-diameter water infrastructure around the Great Lakes went into the ground during the post-war expansion decades, and a lot of it is now operating past its original design assumptions. Freeze-thaw cycling, corrosive soils, and decades of pressure transients do not show up on the surface until a main lets go, and large-diameter pressure pipe rarely gives polite warnings. When these pipes develop an integrity problem, they tend to fail suddenly rather than leak gradually.

That is the argument for condition-based management over run-to-failure, and it is the argument the entire Detroit program makes: a workshop on assessment tools, an owners’ discussion on managing buried assets, and a tour built around a cut-open PCCP section. Utilities in Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, and across the region can get a year’s worth of technology comparison done in five days, with the providers who serve every pipeline sector in one room.

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PICA at UESI Pipelines: third year running

Detroit continues a streak. PICA exhibited and presented at UESI Pipelines 2025 in Tampa, where Scott Popovic presented on pro-active, knowledge-based PCCP asset management, and at UESI Pipelines 2024 in Calgary. The underlying approach hasn’t changed since the technical paper by Jake Regala and Kevin Weeks: know the condition of every pipe segment before it dictates the schedule for you. What has changed each year is the tooling and the data quality, which is what the 2026 workshop demonstration is about.

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Frequently asked questions

When and where is the UESI Pipelines 2026 Conference?

The UESI Pipelines 2026 Conference runs August 1-5, 2026 at Huntington Place Convention Center, 1 Washington Blvd, Detroit, Michigan 48226. The program includes pre-conference workshops on Saturday, August 1, technical sessions through the week, an exhibit hall, and a post-conference technical tour on Wednesday, August 5. Registration details are at pipelinesconference.org.

Who organizes the UESI Pipelines Conference?

The conference is organized by the Utility Engineering & Surveying Institute (UESI), one of nine specialty institutes of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The 2026 planning committee is co-chaired by Michelle Macauley, P.E. (Macauley Expert Services) and Jody Caldwell, P.E. (Chief Planning Officer, Great Lakes Water Authority). It is the main annual North American conference dedicated to pipeline engineering, condition assessment, and utility infrastructure.

What is the Large Diameter Pipeline workshop at UESI Pipelines 2026?

The Large Diameter Pipeline workshop is a full-day pre-conference session on Saturday, August 1, 2026, covering proven and new-to-market tools for assessing large diameter pressurized pipelines. The morning features technical presentations on low-, medium- and high-resolution assessment technologies from providers including PICA, Xylem (Pure Technologies), Insight Water Technologies, Rosenxt Linegy, Acquaint, and APPIA, followed by a panel discussion. The afternoon is a guided discussion among pipeline owners about managing buried pressurized assets.

What is PICA presenting at UESI Pipelines 2026?

PICA presents at the Large Diameter Pipeline workshop on Saturday, August 1, from 10:15 to 10:45 AM, immediately after the mid-morning break. The session includes a live demonstration of PICA’s Remote Field Testing (RFT) tools operating inside a physical pipe segment, showing how the electromagnetic signal responds to wire breaks, wall loss, and other defects that visual inspection cannot see.

What is the Boneyard technical tour at UESI Pipelines 2026?

The Boneyard technical tour takes place Wednesday, August 5, 2026, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM, hosted by the Great Lakes Water Authority at the Wayne State University Pipeline Laboratory. The tour includes full-scale demonstrations of condition assessment and rehabilitation technologies and a dissected prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP) section. Attendance requires an application; submitting the form does not guarantee a spot, and selected applicants are notified after review.

How do I register for UESI Pipelines 2026?

Register at pipelinesconference.org/registration. The early bird discounted rate ended May 27, 2026, so standard rates now apply. Pre-conference workshops such as the Large Diameter Pipeline workshop and the Boneyard technical tour have separate sign-ups, and the tour is application-based with limited capacity.

How can I meet with PICA at UESI Pipelines 2026?

There are three ways: attend PICA’s 10:15 AM session and RFT demonstration at the Large Diameter Pipeline workshop on Saturday, August 1; visit the PICA booth in the exhibit hall during show hours; or book a time in advance by calling 1-800-661-0127 or emailing [email protected]. Booking ahead is recommended for utilities that want to discuss a specific pipeline or upcoming condition assessment program.