Eyes and Ears

An extensive capability in video inspection and underground locating helps Ted Berry Co. provide full service to municipalities
Eyes and Ears
Eric Pomerleau uses a 5,000-gallon tanker with a deck gun to wash down a clarifier at a paper mill. Ted Berry Company personnel designed and built the unit for this specific application.

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Take a look at the Ted Berry Co. article featured 10 years ago in the October 2003 issue of Cleaner magazine. We spotlight the company again in a follow-up story to see how the business has evolved over the last decade: “Unlikely Growth in Down Economy.”

In the area of Maine where the Ted Berry Co. provides municipal and industrial cleaning, it’s important to offer a full range of equipment and services. 

“We have to be able to do it all for the customers we’ve been serving since my grandfather, Ted Berry, started the business in 1972,” says Matt Timberlake, general manager. 

That was why, two years ago, the company made major investments in video pipeline inspection and underground locating equipment. Before then, competitors were getting the inspection and locating business. The Ted Berry Co. was limited to line maintenance – cleaning and flushing. 

“We saw the opportunities in inspection and locating, and we knew it was time to invest the money and go that route,” says Matt. As a result, the company has picked up new business and can give the 100 percent service that long-time customers expect. 

“Now with video inspection and all our equipment, we can go in and pinpoint a problem instead of digging an entire line when that may not need to be done,” says Matt. “Now we can spot-repair the problem area.” 

Maintenance agreements

The Ted Berry Co. is headquartered in Livermore, a town of about 1,000 within half an hour of the state capitol, Augusta, and within two miles of state’s largest paper mill. Maine’s third largest city, Auburn, is also half an hour away. The company does about 95 percent of its work within 50 to 60 miles of Livermore and has maintenance contracts or agreements with about two-dozen municipalities. 

“We have some large contracts, and some that are small,” says Matt. “Some are just agreements based on our long associations. With Augusta, we have a substantial six-year contract that involves cleaning close to 4,000 catch basins every year. We also do a lot of work with the city of Auburn. 

“We also find that selling preventive maintenance contracts to municipalities pays off. When we go in on a regular basis and provide inspection services, we are going to show the savings in fewer backups and less downtime. It makes it all worthwhile. With municipalities, we want to show that if they spend a little, it may not cost a lot later.” 

The company’s inspection equipment includes a 2002 Aries Mainline System with pan-and-tilt camera and tractor, and a 2002 Aries Seeker push camera. In conjunction with the cameras, technicians use Prototek location equipment with a built-in transmitter that puts out a 512 Hz frequency.           

Records and rewards

“When we do the annual cleaning for a community, we determine where the problem areas are, and we keep detailed records of emergencies for sewer plugs,” Matt says. “What I can do after a couple years is go in and tell a town, ‘Here are your problem areas. Now we need to sit down and look at these areas and see what is causing all these problems.’” 

An important service the company provides is a video library. This helps municipal staff members determine their needs and create long-term plans. Many cities have old collection systems that will need to be replaced. 

“Every system is a little different, and every town in this area we’re in has a lot of elevation change,” says Matt. “There’s not much flat land here. We see a lot of frost movement in the pipes every year, and especially so in the older pipe. We also see a lot of root growth in the lines. 

“You’re also dealing with old clay pipes, and these are not watertight. We see a lot of infiltration. This happens in the spring when the ground starts to thaw out. A town’s wastewater flow will pick up from 10 to 30 percent. That tells us the water is coming in from somewhere. That is when we will go in and do the inspection to find out where the major infiltration is. Then the municipality can make an educated plan of where to repair. This is where locating becomes very important.” 

When to dig

Matt has a “three strikes” rule when it comes to making some decisions. If a line plugs up at least three times, it’s time to find out why. “Once we do a video inspection, then we can sit down with the superintendent and make some educated decisions – no guesswork,” he says. 

Last summer a shopping mall encountered line blockages caused by grease buildup from several nearby restaurants. Another company had flushed the line to remove the grease, but the line still did not function properly. A Ted Berry crew jetted the line and got it flowing, but gravel and clean sand began appearing in the manhole. 

“When you get clean sand, you have a problem,” Matt says. “We went in with the video camera and located a joint and elbow completely broken off. Once we saw that, we sat down with the general manager of the mall. He was able sit in his office and watch the picture without having to poke his head into a manhole. 

The mall manager decided to order a repair. “We needed to pin point the location,” says Matt. “It was directly in front of the rear entrance to the mall, and right under the sidewalk. We did a location and made a two-foot-square mark in the concrete. We took a diamond-tip saw and cut the concrete, making a two-foot-square hole, and then with hydroexcavation we went down to the sewer pipe. It was right in the center of that square where we had made the cut. 

“In this process, about half way to the main, we found a 480-volt feed that served the whole shopping mall. With hydroexcavation, you work around that without any damage to electricity at all. We repaired the break in less than a day. The restaurants never had to shut down. There was no interruption of service at all. The manager was happy. 

“If a contractor had come in with the traditional backhoe, and excavator and started to dig, there probably would have been a 10- to 15-foot hole. The sidewalk would have been dug up. There would have been dump trucks. They would have found that 480- volt line. If they had hooked into it with the backhoe, there would have been some serious problems.” 

Jet and locate

Matt says it can be a challenge to explain the benefits of locating to a customer, but even one successful job usually demonstrates the value. 

“Once we get a general idea where the problem is – approximately within a 10-foot circle – then we can adjust the setting on our locator to pinpoint the trouble. Once that is done, the locator will give us a depth measurement. We are accurate to within a few inches in depth, and to within a few inches of the line. With our equipment, we can locate at depths up to 30 feet in non-metallic pipe.” 

Matt runs the locating equipment himself. “I like to be sure that I have located the problem before I tell someone to dig,” he says. “It’s my name on that hole in the ground.” 

As important as municipalities are to the business, about half of Ted Berry’s work is with industrial clients, some with unique concerns. Paper mills, for example, use strong chemicals and generate a great deal of sludge.

Berry technicians use portable trailer jetters in these situations. “There is a lot you can do with this equipment,” says Matt. “We do some tank cleaning with them when we don’t need high pressure. If it can be done at 1,500 to 2,000 psi, that is how we do it. Unplugging lines in a paper mill has more than paid for our portable jetters. There are a lot of lines in a paper mill, and they get plugs every day.” 

Industrial services

Ted Berry’s services to industrial customers also include vacuuming materials from sawdust to fly ash. The company also does hydroblasting with a 15,000 psi unit. 

“And we are doing more leak detecting inside these plants,” says Matt. “Just recently we did leak detection in a big mill where they have buried lines and wires and pipes running in places they don’t even know about. If we go into a pipeline where there is a problem, you can’t just go out and dig it up because you don’t know what else is around. Where there is sludge, the line needs to be thoroughly cleaned before you put the camera in.” Power plants also call on Ted Berry Co. to come in to clean and flush lines. 

The company uses its inspection experience not just to help customers but to train employees. Using the company’s video library, employees can watch hours of past video inspections and so learn what to look for. 

Other aspects of the work – cleaning, flushing and using high-pressure equipment – require substantial on-the-job training. “You can’t learn this business out of a book,” says Matt. “You can’t show videos and learn about hydroblasting and cleaning of tanks. My new guys will spend three to six months with a long-time employee before doing this work on their own.” 

A major concern throughout the company is safety. “The majority of our work is out in the middle of the road,” says Matt. “Traffic safety we take very seriously. We have morning meetings each day, sometimes just five or 10 minutes to talk about our plans. We always try to keep the truck, or vehicles, between ourselves and traffic. We put up the traffic cones. My employees never have to enter a manhole. We do the jetting from the road.” 

Safe operations are just another part of the comprehensive, top-quality customer service that makes The Ted Berry Co. successful.

FAR FROM THE ROOTS

The Ted Berry Co., Inc., has changed greatly since Ted Berry founded it some 30 years ago. The company got its start selling fire trucks and pumps. Today, the company’s list of equipment looks far different, though municipalities are still the primary customers. 

The service fleet includes a 1997 Model 2115 Vactor combination truck, a 1984 Model 810 Vactor combination unit, and 1987 and 1988 Super Products Supersucker vacuums. There is also 15,000 psi hydroblasting unit, built in-house with a Jetstream pump, along with three FMC trailer-mounted waterjet sewer cleaners. 

Linda and Jim Timberlake own the company, of which their son Matt is general manager. Jim is president and is involved in day-to-day operations. Linda keeps informed but is employed by a local lawyer.  



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