More with Less

A small Ohio city stretches its budget by building synergies between departments and selecting equipment that gives a bigger bang for the buck

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Like many smaller cities, Conneaut, Ohio is looking to stretch its budget. At present, the Wastewater Department faces a systemwide video inspection of its sanitary sewer and stormwater lines, an annual cleaning of the sanitary sewer lines and a slate of much-needed repairs.

 

There’s also the ongoing issue of root intrusion from the city’s many trees, plus lift station cleaning and regular conventional and trenchless repair of aging pipes.

 

Conneaut (pronounced CON-ee-awt) gets it done by coordinating projects and sharing resources between departments and by selecting equipment that helps crews work efficiently. Key items in the equipment fleet include a camera truck outfitted with gear from CUES and a new combination truck supplied by GapVax.

 

Getting older

Much of the city’s sanitary sewer system dates back to the mid-1950s. The main trunk line was installed in 1954, but some of the original service lines date back to 1899. The system piping is 60 percent vitrified clay tile.

 

“Many of the lines haven’t been maintained over the years,” says Craig Pierce, wastewater superintendent. “Some of the storm lines are as large as 24 to 30 inches in diameter, so they take a lot of water, and it might not be immediately apparent that there are blockages there.”

 

Conneaut, with a large canopy of deciduous trees, is a member of The Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA program. Below ground, vigorous root systems frequently penetrate the sewer lines.

 

In 2005, the city purchased its first inspection system, including an OZII pan-and-tilt camera and Mudmaster transporter from CUES. “We had contracted out camera work three or four times before that, but we’d never engaged in a program to take a hard look at a system,” says Pierce. In recent years, the department has conducted a manhole-to-manhole inspection of about 40 percent of the system.

 

More cleaning power

In addition, last year, the department realized it needed to replace its ailing 13-year-old single-axle waterjetter in favor of something more capable. “Our old truck was in pretty sad shape,” says Pierce. “We had worked it hard, and it was always in the repair shop and pretty much whipped. Our goal was to find a new unit that could serve as many uses as possible and that we could keep on the road longer.”

 

While the Wastewater Department would be responsible for the capital purchase, city personnel understood that the vehicle would help to serve other city departments as well. The department chose an MC-2008 combination truck from GapVax after visiting that company’s headquarters in Johnstown, Pa.

 

The dual-axle unit gives the city capabilities that include sewer cleaning, root cutting, storm sewer maintenance, hydroexcavation, and support for water main leak repairs. It has a 65 gpm/2,000 psi direct-drive water pump; 3,500 cfm/15 inches Hg positive displacement vacuum pump; front-mounted boom with twin lift cylinders; 1,000-pound lift and 26-foot reach; and a front-mounted articulating direct-drive reel with capacity for 800 feet of 1-inch hose. It also carries an 8-cubic-yard debris tank and a 2,000-gallon water tank, twice the size of the previous unit’s tank.

 

A bigger water tank was a must-have to help cover the city’s 60 miles of sewer lines spread across 26.4 square miles. “Our goal is to help keep the truck on the road longer without having to refill the water tank,” says Pierce. “We’re limited to using just a few hydrants because of the aging water infrastructure, and we have to avoid causing rust complaints, since drawing from a hydrant kicks up a lot of sediment.”

 

Looking into the lines

The truck was a significant investment, so the crew keeps it on the road for the entire 8-hour shift. It is used to maintain both sanitary sewer lines, under Pierce’s department, and storm drains, under Public Works. Often, the crew consists of one member from each department. Sanitary sewer projects take precedence over stormwater system maintenance.

 

A cold-weather recirculation system keeps the unit operating when temperatures fall below freezing. “They offer a heater option, but we’ve never had a problem keeping it on the road with just the recirculation system,” says Pierce.

 

Pierce likes the unit’s low maintenance requirements, which extend its on-road hours. “There’s a rear plate that allows you to lube all but four of the grease fittings at once, so you can get the maintenance done more quickly without having to crawl all over the truck,” he says.

 

The video inspection system serves as the eyes of the combination truck. The initial video survey found blockages caused by roots, rocks and boulders. Some obstructions were so extreme that the jetter couldn’t blast through the debris.

 

“We created a homemade bucket system and put a line down there and retrieved the boulders,” says Pierce. “The largest was a foot-and-a-half by 2-foot piece of asphalt dropped by vandals. We’ve also found iron pipe and hockey sticks down there.”

 

Many of the lines had been installed without bedding material, and that allowed the pipes to sag in the soft soil over the years and fail at the joints. Other problems were caused by homebuilders performing careless work as they tapped the sewer main to hook laterals into the system.

 

“The homeowner in this city is responsible for the sewer connection,” says Pierce. “In the days before insert tees, they’d knock a hole into the wrong place, and they might take a hunk out of it. They would try to cement it up, but there would have been no inspection of that connection.”

 

The camera occasionally turns up surprises, such as a recent discovery that seven homes still discharged sewage to the stormwater system. Dye and smoke tests confirmed that the homes had escaped the notice of engineers separating the sanitary and stormwater systems in 1901.

 

Getting the roots

The combination truck has been an effective weapon against tree roots in the lines. “When we first got the camera, we started to find the heavy root intrusions and began to take them out,” says Pierce. “That’s another reason why the bigger tank on the combination unit is a bonus. We hit the roots with hydraulic circular root cutters, and in the big lines, we use hydraulic chain cutters that can go right to the outer edges of the pipe. A bigger tank lets us cut roots for longer periods of time.”

 

Whether roots are cut and whether pipe sections are lined or replaced depends on the department’s budget, and in which account the money is available. Pipe lining, for example, falls into the capital budget, while root cutting is part of the operating budget.

 

“In 2005, we had some money set aside for cured-in-place pipe lining,” says Pierce. “We contracted United Survey of Cleveland to line 3,000 feet of pipe at about a third the price of excavation. This year, we’re putting out a contract for another 3,000 feet with the assistance of a capital grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission.”

 

The Wastewater Department handles many of its own pipe repair and replacement jobs, ranging from lengths of 10 to 20 feet to as long as 300 feet. “We just take out the tile section and replace it with SDR25 or SDR26 PVC pipe, then use Fernco couplings to make the transition between the old clay and the plastic,” says Pierce.

 

For most digs, Pierce calls on excavators operated by the Public Works Department. The GapVax truck sometimes assists with hydroexcavation to depths of about 30 feet. However, Pierce generally farms out repair work at depths in excess of 15 feet to outside construction crews. “Most of the really deep pipe is newer PVC, so it’s the least likely to need attention,” he says.

Operators appreciate the truck’s remote control while hydroexcavating. “They can get a much better look at what they’re doing from outside the truck,” says Pierce.

 

Customized instruments

Pierce also worked with GapVax to customize the instrument panel so that operators can see how much water they have left without leaving the truck. “You don’t want to run dry with a positive displacement pump,” says Pierce. “But you also don’t want to have to stop, walk around the truck to check water levels, and then run dry by the time you get back.”

 

The department has established a goal of cleaning the entire sanitary sewer system every year. However, an extensive paving program that has occupied the city for the past seven years continues to drive department activities.

 

“The paving program has really hindered our standard cleaning program,” says Pierce. “But when the roads are under construction and wide open, we target our efforts to inspect and repair lines in those locations first.”

 

It’s as much an exercise in maintaining public trust as it is a repair program. “It used to be that the roadbuilders paved and didn’t know what sort of infrastructure they were paving over,” says Pierce. “If they paved over a weak or deficient sewer line, often the added weight of the new paving could cause the sewer line and the road itself to collapse, and we’d have to excavate into a brand-new road to complete the repairs. To the public, that looked bad on both departments.”

 

The department now works closely with the Public Works to coordinate the two programs for maximum efficiency.

 

Focus on lift stations

Pierce spends considerable effort on maintaining the system’s six lift stations, which are cleaned three to four times per year. “We use the combination truck to jet the sludge and solids from the bottom of the tank and vacuum the debris and gravel,” he says.

 

Conneaut’s 10-year goals, beyond the aggressive road improvement program, include establishing a regular annual cleaning program for the sanitary sewer system and getting the stormwater conduits “totally spotless,” Pierce says. “If we treat the equipment right, I hope we’ll be doing it with the same truck.”



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