Brief information about modern methods for determining the bending stresses of the extended sections of underground main pipelines without access to the pipeline generatrix is given. The necessity of modernizing methods based on determining the configuration of the pipeline axis from the soil surface with subsequent calculation of bending stresses based on the obtained data is substantiated. A mathematical model that allows to calculate the optimal parameters for surveying the axis of the pipeline from the soil surface for a pipeline of arbitrary configuration and depth, when planning a study, is proposed. Bench tests of the BITA-1 pipeline finder were carried out to determine the error in measuring the depth of the pipeline axis. It is proved that the deviations of the pipeline finder data relative to the true values in narrow depth intervals follow a normal distribution and do not change their sign. The confidence intervals of the error in determining the depth of the pipeline axis for the BITA-1 device are presented.
