Subsurface Utility Imaging (SUI) has been identifying, marking, tracing, mapping, cleaning and inspecting underground utilities since its founding in 2010, but it was recently called in for a unique project. An old warehouse in upstate New York had been wasting away, largely vacant and unused until an engine manufacturer signed on to lease the entire facility. However, before moving in, a remodel was required, including an evaluation of the vast network of sanitary and stormwater conveyance piping underneath the warehouse.

The foundation of Franklin Township’s Sewerage Authority’s sewer inspection program is a dedicated focus on preventative maintenance. “Being proactive is the only way we can manage over 200 miles of sewer pipes inundated with infiltration,” said Scott Nocero, Franklin Township Sewerage Authority’s (FTSA) Operations Manager. Elements of their preventative maintenance program include ongoing sewer flushing, inspections and rehabilitation. These efforts have resulted in a significant reduction in inflow and infiltration (I&I) throughout their collection system.

Toms River, a township in New Jersey (population 91,000), has consistently been ranked as one of the safest places to live in the entire United States. That attention to the basic needs of its citizens extends also to sewer infrastructure—over the last several years the township’s municipal utility authority (TRMUA) has implemented an aggressive program to reduce inflow and infiltration, resulting in a $1 million savings in treatment costs in 2016.

But Toms River has now addressed most of the obvious, easily fixed sources of I/I, and the authority is looking for ways to make further reductions. “Every little bit counts when it comes to infiltration,” says TRMUA Rehabilitation Foreman Rich Sistad. “I’ve been keeping a folder for several years, filled with known leaks that were too expensive to get to because they would require digging and trenching in busy areas. We’ve tried different spot repair methods in the past, like short sections of CIPP, but most of them were a hassle to install and didn’t work well. But this year, things are different—we finally have a solution that is quick and easy to install, and we’ve been able to repair up to seven leaks in a single day. It’s really making a difference.”

Sewer rehabilitation is resource intensive. The larger and older a sewer is, the more frequently it requires maintenance, and the more costly and time-consuming that maintenance can be. Many municipalities rely solely on end-to-end (manhole-to-manhole) rehabilitation techniques like CIPP, pipe bursting and slip-lining to repair failing lines. While end-to-end methods can repair common defects in sewer pipe, in certain situations they can be overkill and a waste of time and money. That’s where spot (or point) repairs are more useful. Because of their targeted nature, spot repairs are able to address localized defects less expensively, faster, and often with less disruption than end-to-end methods. When a single line has multiple defects, however, the decision between spot and end-to-end methods requires careful consideration.

Watch as a Quick-Lock point repair sleeve from PRT is pushed into place with Envirosight's ROVVER X inspection crawler. The Quick-Lock point repair sleeve fixes deteriorating and leaky sewer pipes without messy resin, expensive equipment, short working times or long cures. Designed for unsurpassed service life, Quick-Lock installs in minutes with minimal manpower and overhead. Its stainless steel construction restores structural strength, while its rubber gasket seals out infiltration. 

Quick-Lock and ROVVER X teamed up recently to fix a large hole in a sewer pipe wall in Montana. 

During a demo, the customer presented a pipe to Luke Stewart and Jessie Carr of NorMont Equipment, cautioning that it was also inundated with offset joints, protruding taps, steep slopes, fractures and other challenges. The NorMont team demonstrated how the Quick-Lock point repair system could overcome these challenges to fix the hole.