WATER SEWER

MUNICIPAL
SEWER
&
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NEW TECHNIQUES IN
CONDITION ASSESSMENT
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A LOOK AT THE LATEST
IN CAMERA TRANSPORTERS
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TECHNOLOGY TEST DRIVE: LATERAL
SURVEY SOFTWARE FROM PIPELOGIX
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FOR SANITARY, STORM AND WATER SYSTEM MAINTENANCE PROFESSIONALS
June 2007
www.mswmag.com
FIRST
THINGS
FIRST
Inspection helps an
Illinois village stay on
top of maintenance
PAGE 54

FOCUS:SEWER
FIRST
THINGS
FIRST
CCTV inspection technology helps a fast-growing
Illinois village set correct priorities in maintaining
and fixing 250 miles of sanitary sewer
By Angus W. Stocking
T
he sewer inspection program
in Bolingbrook, Ill.,
is less than four years old.
Yet it already is saving the
village money “by concentrating
on problem areas, and not overmaintaining
in other areas,” according
to Tony Torres, director of operations
in the Public Works Department.
“We’re able to concentrate efforts
where they’re needed.”
This kind of discriminating care is
needed. Bolingbrook is in Will County,
the fastest-growing community in the
Chicago area. The village has more
than 250 miles of sanitary sewer and
330 miles of storm sewer, some of it
dating back 40 years or more. And a
fairly high percentage was installed
without proper underlay or backfill.
That means recurring problems with
shifting, heaving, and separated joints.
Torres stays ahead of the game by
investing in high-quality CCTV pipe
inspection equipment, and by training
Bolingbrook technicians view
a sewer line inspection being
performed by a ROVVER
camera from Envirosight LLC.
(Photography by Dave Kenik)
his staff to think ahead. “We’re a bit
ahead of the curve because we’re proactive
rather than reactive,” he says. “A lot
of credit goes to our workers, because
they’re the ones who are out there
identifying problems and coming up
with solutions.”
Good vision
On a previous job, Torres implemented
the inspection program in
Joliet, Ill., and he helped acquire
that city’s first CCTV unit, a ROVVER
camera system from Envirosight LLC.
When he came to Bolingbrook, he
acquired the same unit for the village (a
Model 125) because he liked its flexibility
and ease of control.
“I think the zoom is a nice feature,
as well as the lighting,” he says. “The
steering lets us maneuver the camera in
large pipes, and it’s nice to be able to
control the speed in forward or
reverse.” End users in the new department
were involved in field tests before
the purchase, and they unanimously
approved the technology.
Repairing blockages and other failures
took much longer before the
CCTV purchase. It often took four-man
crews up to a day to dig up the pipe,
find the blockage area, repair the pipe,
and then backfill. And because it was
easy to miss nearby problems, crews
were often back in the same areas
within a month.
“Because it was open trenching,”
says Torres, “there was no
way of seeing what the
PROFILE:
Village of
Bolingbrook, Ill.
INCORPORATED:
1965
POPULATION:
72,000
AREA:
21 square miles
INFRASTRUCTURE:
250 miles of sanitary sewer
WEB SITE:
www.bolingbrook.com

MODULAR
SYSTEM
“We’re a bit ahead of the curve because we’re proactive
rather than reactive. A lot of credit goes to our workers,
because they’re the ones who are out there identifying
problems and coming up with solutions.”
obstruction was. It could have been
an improper connection, a stab in
(improperly connected service lateral),
roots, grease, or a broken pipe. We just
didn’t know. Now we can see what we’re
dealing with.”
Tough situations
One recent repair provides an
example of the new approach. “We ran
into a situation where a customer kept
getting backups,” Torres says. “After
TVing the sanitary main, we found a
large root mass in the lateral. Attempts
to remove the roots were unsuccessful,
so in this case we did open up a trench.
We found roots in the pipe so thick that
they looked like a beaver pelt.
“We ended up having to re-pipe. But
even with all that extra work, we were
able to locate the blockage, then
trench, repair and backfill, all in about
five hours. Having the camera took the
guessing out of it. Not to mention that
we might have missed the lateral blockage
without it.”
Torres doesn’t record every foot of
inspected pipe. “We don’t shoot everything;
we’re able to take still shots or
video of just the problem areas and
record them,” he says. “Then we can log
them into a work order.” And after a
problem is fixed, the department usually
Tony Torres
inspects the surrounding neighborhoods
thoroughly, hoping to identify
and resolve problems before service is
disrupted. Likewise, after emergency
callouts, crews thoroughly inspect all
nearby lines.
Torres likes CCTV so much that
he’ll soon expand the department’s
options. The department is looking at
a QuickView portable zoom survey
camera from Envirosight for inspecting
manholes and other confined spaces.
“It will have zoom and lighting capability
and will capture video and still
images,” Torres says. “It’s also submersible.”
Part of the reason for the
pole camera is speed and convenience,
but another big factor is safety: “We
wanted to minimize confined-space
entries to make things safer for our
workers.”
To complement the CCTV unit,
Bolingbrook also operates two Vactor
2100 Series jetter/vacuum combination
trucks with 10-cubic-yard debris tanks.
Off to a good start
There are five employees in the
sanitary sewer inspection department,
and several employees in the National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) department are cross-trained
for storm sewer inspection. Eight
The camera is deployed for an
inspection on an off-street right-ofway.
employees are trained to operate the
CCTV camera in two-man crews. To
minimize reliance on contractors and
increase confidence on jobsites,
Bolingbrook has two employees performing
locates.
Torres generally avoids subcontracting,
preferring to keep as much work as
possible in-house to save money and
develop experience in his team. But he
does feel that the inflow and infiltration
The camera and
crawler are seen
from above as the
crawler starts
into a pipe.
The ROVVER line of robotic
crawlers from Envirosight LLC is
designed for versatility. Modular
design allows interchange of
cameras, control units, cable
reels and lighting, so that the
unit can be used in pipes of
varying size.
Cameras are fully directional,
meaning that they can zoom,
pan, tilt and refocus as needed.
These steerable crawlers are
valuable in large-diameter pipes,
since they enable operators to
avoid obstructions and inspect
laterals. The crawlers are also
all-wheel-drive, with several
speeds in forward and reverse.
The QuickView pole camera
is designed as a simple inspection
system with a zoom camera
and lights. It is used to look
as far as 250 feet down large
diameter lines. Users can quickly
inspect pipes and enclosed
spaces without worry about
confined-space hazards.
For information: 973/252-
6700; www.envirosight.com.

A Bolingbrook work
crew sets up for a
camera inspection in
a residential area.
The camera is launched to seek out
an obstruction in a park storm drain.
(I&I) study he contracted early in his
tenure was a good idea.
“It was worthwhile,” he says. “We
were able to identify problem areas that
were taxing our storm system.” Using
foresight and available information to
schedule work proactively is characteristic
of Torres’s approach to inspection
and repair. He prefers to identify
the problem areas and concentrate
resources there.
“One of our major challenges is to
keep up with new technology,” he says,
and training is a good way to do just
that. Most training is in-house. Vendors
come in for seminars, and the department
develops its own training programs.
But employees are also sent out
for relevant seminars, formal training,
and job-specific training. And Torres
makes sure that when the village buys
new equipment, his people are fully
ready to use it. “Any time we get a new
piece of equipment, training is
addressed in the purchase agreement,”
he says.
Torres thinks the department is
about the right size. “We’re staffed to
capacity” he says, “and we keep busy.”
On a typical day, crews are generally
doing scheduled inspections or repair,
but are always ready to redirect for
emergencies. Torres expects emergencies
to decrease as new policies take effect.
The department also finds it a good
idea to reach out and engage the public.
This year, the staff started a door
hanger program. “When residents
aren’t home, we like to let them know
that we’re addressing complaints, or
just doing maintenance work in the
neighborhood,” he says.
New directions
As the head of a new department,
Torres is well aware of the need to set
“One of our major
challenges is to keep
up with new technology.
Any time we get a new
piece of equipment,
training is addressed
in the purchase
agreement.”
Tony Torres
goals and keep striving for excellence.
This year, he set the goal of thoroughly
inspecting all sewer lines in one
of Bolingbrook’s older sections of
town, using the CCTV technology to -
document and log all problem areas.
This pilot project may pave the way for
even more comprehensive inspection.
Since roots and grease are major
causes of blockage and leaks, “We’re
investigating root treatments, and we’re
implementing a line cleaning program
to remove grease buildup,” he says. “We
may develop a preventive maintenance
program for both.” Another aspect of
preventive maintenance is a prohibition
on clay pipe: only PVC is now installed
in the village. Clay pipes suffered a disproportionate
percentage of blockages
and leaks.
In addition, Bolingbrook has just
purchased two handheld Trimble GPS
locators, so that staff can bring sewer
features into the village’s existing
geographic information system (GIS).
“There’s a lot of reasons for this,” says
Torres. “Ease of locating during emergencies
is one, and it makes it easier for
us to pinpoint lines before construction,
or after, if they get buried. And it
helps our engineers as well.”
Torres is always on the lookout for
useful new tools and techniques.
Using time well
In Bolingbrook, the arrival of the
CCTV unit and the inspection program
were nearly simultaneous. And in
Torres’s previous position, he acquired
TV capacity early. “I don’t know how
other municipalities do without it,” he
says. “I think they’ll all have to have a
unit in inventory, especially in an age
of budget constraints and limited
resources.”
Seeing and pinpointing problems is
the critical factor that makes Bolingbrook
inspectors effective, and without
it, the fledgling program would be off
to a rocky start. But it’s not just a piece
of equipment that makes the program
work. Rather, it’s an orientation toward
working precisely, towards intelligent
MORE INFO:
66 Envirosight LLC
973/252-6700
www.envirosight.com
5
263
Vactor Manufacturing
847/742-3035
www.vactor.com
Trimble
800/874-6253
www.trimble.com
use of employee time.
By learning to concentrate on the
work that needs to be done, emphasizing
a proactive mindset, and using technology
to set priorities, Bolingbrook
sewer inspectors are solving little
problems before they disrupt service to
customers. That’s the advantage of
looking ahead. ■
© 2007, COLE Publishing Inc. Reprinted with permission from Municipal Sewer & Water / June 2007 / COLE Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, WI 54562 / 800-257-7222 / www.mswmag.com