Author: Professor, Dr. Dietrich Stein - TrenchlessOnline

COVER STORY
how to do things,” Lovett
says, noting that Larry
Decker, MDSWD assistant
superintendent for the
sewage collection division,
even created a software
program at the time
to record the readings
from the flow monitors;
based on this data, the
county was able to determine
where the heaviest
I/I was concentrated.
Miami-Dade also did its
own television work, having
in excess of 16 trucks
in operation, and crews
working in two shifts.
“Right now we have 17
truck shifts operating and
eight crews that are running
every day,” Lovett says. “We’ve
cut back a bit because we finished
the five-year cycle [of inspection] and
are now on a 10-year cycle. Those
trucks not only do SSES but they also
Longevity of the MDWSD 2,700-member workforce has bred experience
and invaluable trenchless knowledge.
do the grouting.”
The success of that initial TV and
grout program allowed MDWSD to
evolve into inspecting every foot of
mainline in the system, as well as the
laterals. “I haven’t heard of anyone
else in the country that
has done this,” Lovett
explains. “As we go
through the mainline,
we stop at each lateral
connection. We pan-andtilt
[the camera] into
each lateral to see if
there are any leaks. If
there is water running
down in the lateral while
we’re there, we’ll wait
five minutes to see if the
water stops.If it does,we
move on.If it doesn’t,we
identify that particular
lateral as a suspect lateral
and a lateral inspection
team will go out at a
later date and check it.”
Laterals, Laterals, Laterals
One area that MDWSD has aggressively
and proactively addressed in
recent years has been the condition
of the laterals throughout the county.
22 TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY September 2007
Circle 14 on reader service card.
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