Author: Professor, Dr. Dietrich Stein - TrenchlessOnline

COVER STORY
“The program is dependent on
showing the results of what we’ve
done,” he adds.“There are a lot of
lateral programs across the country
in which all they do is go out
and replace laterals but they don’t
really know what they’ve done.
They have no way of measuring
their success.We wanted to figure
out a way to do that.”
Experience
Breeds Success
Aguiar and Lovett have been
integral parts of the Miami-Dade
infrastructure turnaround over the
years. Aguiar just recently marked
his 30th year with MDWSD and
Lovett has 19 years on the job.
Longevity is the norm among the
2,700 workers at MDWSD, bringing
expertise to the processes
being utilized. Lovett says many
things have changed over the
years and appreciates the expertise
that his staff brings to the job.
CIPP may be the most used trenchless method in MDWSD
but other methods include pipe bursting, HDD, sliplining and
chemical grouting, to name a few.
“I don’t know if we are old pros
but we do know our system very
well. I’ve never felt that what
[Miami-Dade does] is what everyone
should do because everyone
has different circumstances. We
do have a better handle on things,
but most of that is because of the
technology.
“When I first went to work, the
way we responded to sewer problems
was strictly on a reactive
basis,” he says. “If something was
broke, we fixed it. Today, we’re
probably doing 80 percent of our
work on a proactive basis. That’s
what’s changed and it was a long
time in coming. And it was the
right thing to do.”
Sharon M. Bueno is managing editor
of Trenchless Technology.
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24 TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY September 2007 www.trenchlessonline.com