Twelve years ago, Neil Buchanan set out to start a small excavation company called Buchanan Contracting, Inc. This small company soon became Kentucky’s most trusted one-stop shop for underground projects. Today, the company has several divisions, including CCTV inspection, cleaning, excavation, sewer testing, CIPP and manhole rehab. The growth was exponential and now the company employs more than twenty workers and inspects close to a million feet of pipe per year. One of the things that sets Buchanan apart from its competitors is the company’s ability to do cross bore inspections.

Nestled between Calgary and Edmonton lies the City of Red Deer, the third largest city in the province of Alberta, Canada. Known for beautiful walking paths and the Red Deer River that winds through the heart of the city, it’s a majestic place to live for over 100,000 residents. In Red Deer, the summers are long and comfortable, but the winters bring arctic weather. Freezing temperatures present significant challenges for the city’s 14-person wastewater crew, which is responsible for a total of 533.2 km (331 miles) of sanitary sewer pipes and 560.3 km (348 miles) of stormwater pipes.

Sewer drainage issues are the last thing you want in a surgical center. Doctors—and those in their care—like to keep things clean. In fact, when Carl Fielder, the video inspection coordinator for Luckinbill, Inc., paid a visit to the clinic to inspect the center’s drain system, he and his teams were asked to wear paper coats, booties and goggles, and cover their heads and facial hair. Their ROVVER X inspection crawler received a deep clean and was covered in plastic wrap.

Robert Korosec, PLS, is cofounder of Utica, NY-based Subsurface Utility Imaging (SUI), a company dedicated to location and inspection of underground infrastructure assets since 2010. As such, he’s been actively using and researching new pipeline and manhole inspection solutions on behalf of many municipal clients. “Cities don’t have money, and their infrastructure is unreliable,” he says plainly. “Anything we can do that makes sewer maintenance more cost-effective is useful and appreciated.”

Inspection experts know the devil is in the details. The more accurate the imagery, the more agile the hardware, and the more exact the reporting, the easier it is to identify existing issues and prevent future crises. The professionals at Compliance EnviroSystems, LLC (CES) have used that insight to rise quickly in the sanitary sewer and storm drain evaluation industry.

Today’s municipalities don’t lack data; in fact, modern technologies provide scads of it. The key to effective utility management has become analyzing and assessing that information and using it to make critical operating and maintenance decisions. As municipal budgets continue to diminish and expectations continue to increase, municipalities have been creating tactical sewer asset management plans to better support their workloads. Such has been the case for the City of Vista Wastewater Division.

Agriculture is one of Minnesota’s most robust industries: Over 74,542 farms lie within its borders, with an overall economic impact of $21.2 billion per year (source). AgWater Management plays a vital role within the community, providing services such as farm drainage planning; drainage system mapping and layout; aerial photogrammetry, photography and videography; and ditch viewing and wetland delineation. Guided by its laser sharp focus on growth and customer service, AgWater added drain tile inspection to its toolbox, and the service quickly became one of its most requested offerings.

Founded in 1954, Innovac had humble beginnings as a residential duct cleaning company. Over time it expanded its offerings to include commercial duct cleaning, industrial vacuuming and CCTV pipeline inspection. In 2014, the company changed ownership and Nirpaul Kang was brought on board as the Director of Business Development & CCTV Operations. Once hired, he identified opportunities that his division could capitalize on to increase revenue and service its customers better. 

No doubt, sewer inspection gives municipalities a wealth of information, from what defects exist in pipes, to the presence of inflow and infiltration; from pipe rehabilitation needs, to the general condition of underground infrastructure. However, the City of Santa Fe’s Wastewater Management Division takes the investigative powers of their ROVVER X sewer inspection camera a step further by performing quality control.

When it came time to replace Lancaster Area Sewer Authority’s lateral launch sewer inspection system, John Vilga, the Authority’s Maintenance Supervisor, wanted a more dependable system that didn’t come with a steep learning curve.