Keeping aging manholes watertight is often a constant struggle for contractors. Those manholes play a key role in protecting assets below the surface by creating a seal between aboveground contaminants and the belowground access point. But when inflow from surface water or infiltration of groundwater through defects in the structure come into play, the treatment of these excess flows turns costly, unnecessarily testing collections system limits and capacity at treatment plants.

RedZone Robotics, a U.S.-based robotics firm, recently introduced a new technology for manhole condition assessment aimed at reducing the risk of sanitary sewer overflow events caused by faulty manholes. Vertue is a multisensor inspection tool specifically suited for manhole inspections.  

“With Vertue, utility operators are now able to capture full multisensor data, including 360-degree, high-definition imagery, laser and positioning of their manholes in a reliable way,” says Dave Petrosky, president and CEO of RedZone Robotics. “Utilities won’t need to go back and re-inspect due to poor lighting conditions or blurry images. They’re getting a true visual condition assessment every time.”

Vertue is offered as a stand-alone product and service, or as part of the Accelerated System Assessment Program (ASAP) from RedZone Robotics. The program provides an accelerated approach to condition assessment across an entire collections system, enabling a system owner to identify and prioritize the maintenance and repairs that are needed. ASAP not only addresses the most severe infrastructure issues, but also leverages the nearly 100 million feet of inspections already assessed across hundreds of systems to establish a baseline condition required for long-term asset management planning.

“If the manholes in a city’s network are in poor condition, this could lead to significant infiltration of clear water during wet-weather events,” says Jeffrey Griffiths, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing. “Infiltration causes significant issues as it results in additional treatment costs and has the potential to put a treatment plant over its design capacity, which may result in an overflow event.”

According to Petrosky, field tests of the Vertue system have yielded significant success rates among test subjects. “We’ve stress-tested Vertue out in the field, and the level of detail we’re able to produce in our interactive 3D models is excellent,” he says. 412-476-8980; www.redzone.com