FOCUS: SEWER

TOOLS,TIME,
TEAMWORK
A historic Atlanta suburb combines the right mix
of vehicles, equipment and software to maximize
inspection efficiency and hold down costs
By Suzan Marie Chin

y crews do all the

work. They get
all the credit. My
main goal is to
find things that
make their life better, to give them the
best equipment to do their job in a
professional and speedy manner.
So says Jake Haley, supervisor of
wastewater collections for the City of
Marietta, Ga., for whom pipe cleaning
and inspection are top priorities. In
replacing, upgrading and adding equip-

ment, due diligence is essential.

By carefully listening to his crews,
studying product options and researching the systems unique needs, Haley
has discovered untapped areas where
the department can save money and significantly improve productivity. As a
result, the department has put together
a state-of-the-art toolbox that helps
the work crews meet or exceed annual
inspection and cleaning.
Experienced operators Brian Vickers
(foreman) and Jerome Bonner (assistant) inspect Mariettas 300 miles of
sewer mains on a proactive, routine
basis. Their goal is to inspect and document survey findings on some 70,000
feet of pipe per year, or 5 to 7 percent
of the entire system.

The right tools

Sam Snipes of the Marietta crew prepares to clean a sewer line in a residential neighborhood.

When the time came a few years ago

to replace the citys inspection system,
Vickers, Bonner and Haley asked major
camera manufacturers to demonstrate
their equipment. Among many decision
factors, budget was critical. At the same
time, the team wanted more than a
typical truck-mounted CCTV system.
On top of the wish list were multiple
cameras and tractors, and the ability to
go portable to inspect in off-road locations. After numerous demonstrations
and long trial periods, the team selected
a Pathfinder inspection system from
Aries Industries Inc.
Although the system was new to the
market, Vickers liked what he saw during the demonstrations and envisioned
a learning opportunity in working with
the manufacturers engineers to develop

Marietta team member Brian Vickers

observes a neighborhood pipeline inspection
in one of the citys inspection vehicles.
(Photos by Harris Hatcher)

and perfect the system.

Marietta purchased a package of
four Pathfinder cameras and three
transporters. The system can inspect
lines from 6 inches to 18 inches, and
the cable reel lets them explore up to
1,000 feet from the point of entry. The
camera equipment is split between a
custom-built, 18-foot high-cube box van
and an all-terrain vehicle.
About 25 percent of the citys system
access points are located in off-road
easements that range from woodlands
to swamps and wetlands. In many of
these areas the lines had never been
inspected because access had been too
difficult.

Portable system
Haley roughed out a design of what
he needed and asked Aries to build an
off-road inspection vehicle. The company
built it around a 6-wheel-drive Ranger
all-terrain vehicle by Polaris Industries
Inc. The CCTV system is mounted in
a watertight, weather-resistant case that
rides in the rear cargo area.
The controller, monitors, cable reel

PROFILE:

City of Marietta, Ga.,

Marietta Power & Water,
Wastewater Collections
Department
EMPLOYEES:

10
CUSTOMERS:

60,000
INFRASTRUCTURE:

300 miles of sanitary sewer,

primarily gravity-flow
ANNUAL BUDGET:

$3.82 million (operations,

maintenance, capital equipment
and improvement)
WEB SITE:

www.mariettaga.gov
with all 1,000 feet, computer, cameras
and transporters all fit within the case,
which can be removed and deployed

from a pickup truck or other vehicle. A

gasoline-powered Honda generator
supplies the power.
For the box van, the city chose an
Isuzu for its excellent maintenance ratings and tight turning radius. The latter
feature was important for traversing the
many narrow streets in the citys historic
district. The van is equipped with an
ergonomically designed control room
with onboard computer, monitors
and controller. The rear compartment
houses the cable reel, washdown area
and storage facilities for the camera
equipment and other tools.

More than hardware

At the end of each day, the inspection crews return to the shop and
upload all of their survey findings
through a wireless network to the
departments main computer. The

portable system and the van utilize

flexidata survey reporting software from
PipeLogix Inc. to capture survey findings, record digital video, and generate
reports.
All data collected from the software
is seamlessly integrated into Mariettas
asset management and work order
system by GBA Master Series Inc. The
department is now migrating its mapping information to GeoBlade from
Geographic Technologies Group Inc.
This new geographic information system (GIS) will be tied into the GBA
Master Series program, giving Haley

and the engineering team single-click

access to all data about an asset: maintenance history, associated reports, pictures and videos.
With these integrated tools we can
track sanitary sewer spills, root intrusions or other problems we need to stay
on top of, Haley says. For instance,
when we clean a line in a known greasebuildup area, we can schedule a followup inspection in several months to
assess the situation. From that information, we can decide how often we need
to put that line on a PM schedule to
prevent potential problems.

When a homeowner calls requesting their tap to be

located, with the mapping and survey data all together,
I can pinpoint it from the office and quickly go out
in the field and mark it for the customer.
Jake Haley

The inspection data and integrated

software tools also help Haley make the
most efficient use of his crews time.
The work order system eliminates
guesswork, preventing overbooking or
failure to assign enough tasks to keep
the crews productive and on schedule
in the preventive maintenance rotation.
It also improves customer service
and helps keep certain service call costs
low. When a homeowner calls requesting their tap to be located, with the
mapping and survey data all together, I
can pinpoint it from the office and
quickly go out in the field and mark it
for the customer, Haley says. This
saves a lot of time and money versus
sending our CCTV crew out to perform
this service manually.

Working together
Teamwork also helps the department function efficiently. Marietta has
four departments within the Wastewater Collection Systems Division that
all collaborate: CCTV inspection,
cleaning, construction, and service.
Always looking and listening for
better, more efficient ways to work,
Haley discovered a drain on his
departments budget in the contracting of easement clearing services a
critical service for the inspection
crews. With input from the Service
Department, he performed a cost
analysis of the clearing services, show-

Not every pipeline is easy to

survey. Here, Brian Vickers and
Jerome Bonner use the citys
Polaris off-road vehicle with
Aries camera equipment to
access and survey a remote line.

A MULTI-TASKING VEHICLE
Besides transporting a specially designed portable Pathfinder CCTV inspection system by Aries Industries Inc., the City of Marietta Wastewater Collection
System Departments 6-wheel-drive Ranger vehicle is enabling the city to make
the leap into pipe bursting.
The vehicle can go from easement inspection rig to pipe bursting unit with
a quick switch of equipment in its cargo compartment. TT Technologies Inc.
provided a lateral line pipe bursting system as a demonstration unit to help
the city determine whether to bring that capability in-house.
The pipe bursting system, power pack and winch cable are loaded onto the
Ranger, which delivers it to back yards and other difficult-to-access places. It
also can be deployed quickly to right-of-way points, enabling Marietta to make
repairs completely under the street from curb to curb, limiting traffic disruption.

Although the CCT V inspection crews had never performed this type of
work, they have picked it up quickly and it will save us money, says Jake Haley,
supervisor, wastewater collections. Well definitely be looking at bringing this
technology in-house and performing this service with our crews.
Case in point: A repair was needed in an easement that had numerous large,
old trees that the property owners did not want disturbed. The line to be
replaced was 160 feet long, and estimates from contractors for conventional
replacement averaged $17,000.
With the bursting system onboard the Ranger vehicle, the city crew
accessed the easement without disrupting the landscape. The crew completed
the rehabilitation in less than three days at a cost of $8,000.

Left photo: Gerry Jake Haley (left) observes Jerome Bonner as he

prepares to clean a sewer line. Below: a camera is deployed on an
inspection in a Marietta neighborhood.

ing that the department could clear

more sites per year at less cost than with
contracting even after purchasing its
own equipment.
The department acquired a Bobcat
T300 skid-steer with a brush cutter and
is now clearing about 80,000 feet of
easement per year a vast improvement over the 10,000 feet previously
completed by contractors.
The efficiency of the Cleaning

Department crew is also essential to a

successful inspection program. At the
suggestion of cleaning crews, the city
upgraded the departments small trailer
jetter system about 18 months ago to a
combination sewer cleaning truck from
Vac-Con Inc.
The new truck helped the crew
achieve its highest productivity to date,
just under 300,000 feet of line cleaned
in a year. With these results, Haley

Marietta service vehicles are designed and equipped to maximize

work crews efficiency.

could justify a second Vac-Con truck

and additional staff to operate it. These
additions will boost productivity to
some 600,000 feet 40 percent of the
system will be serviced each year.
With all the departments working at
peak efficiency in an organized pattern,
Mariettas inspection program is meeting and exceeding its goals. The new
inspection cameras and other tools
have really helped our program, Haley
says.
Before coming here, I worked in
the field a long time; I know what its
like to not have the right equipment for
the job youre doing. Before making
any purchase, listen to the people who
are running the equipment.
Understand what you need to fit
your purpose, and study your options.
Being an informed consumer is your
best chance at getting the right tools,
at the right time, and giving your
department what it needs to get the
job done.

MORE INFO:
10

Aries Industries
800/234-7205
www.ariesindustries.com

237

GBA Master Series Inc.

800/492-2468
www.gbams.com

329

Geographic Technologies
Group Inc.
888/757-4222
www.geotg.com

37

PipeLogix
866/299-3150
www.pipelogix.com

57

TT Technologies
630/851-8200
www.tttechnologies.com

Vac-Con Inc.
904/284-4200
www.vac-con.com

2007, COLE Publishing Inc.

Reprinted with permission from

November 2007
COLE Publishing
1720 Maple Lake Dam Rd.
P.O. Box 220
Three Lakes, WI 54562
800-257-7222
www.mswmag.com

LOOKING
FORWARD
AND BACK
The Pathfinder sewer inspection
system from Aries Industries Inc. is
ergonomically designed, but still
maintains large equipment capability.
It includes both a forward viewing
camera and a rear-view camera for
use in coming out of a sewer.Three
sets of lights can illuminate pipes
from relined 6-inch lines to 36-inch
sewers.
For forward viewing, the
Pathfinder has camera-mounted
lights and auxiliary lights placed on
top of the camera lift.The rear-view
camera has its own lights to ensure
identification of bends, debris or
other items that may interfere with
exiting the line.
The tractor transporter has two
brushless motors that require virtually no maintenance, are highly efficient, and provide up to 50 percent
more power. Electronic clutches easily engage and disengage for a high
degree of 6-wheel-drive control.
For information: 262/896-7205;
www.ariesindustries.com.