Case Study - January 2022

Case Study - January 2022

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Affordable manhole inspection program sees big return

Problem Greenwood Metropolitan District is a special purpose district in Greenwood County, South Carolina, originally started to provide sewer conveyance and treatment to the area. However, in 1999 GMD took over the collections systems that fed into their trunk lines. What the district received was a patchwork of 38 collections systems, including the city of Greenwood’s system, which had pipe and manhole assets in excess of 100 years old.

Solution One of GMD’s first steps was identifying assets, including mapping manholes using Esri software. This hunt took almost three years, but the final tally showed more than 8,700 manholes, with about 75% of them constructed of brick and mortar. Additionally, a significant number of the manholes were noted to have heavy I&I. Crews completed visual inspections on all manholes using a simple digital video camera. Back at the office, the videos were then uploaded into ITpipes Web and coded using a configured template. Since ITpipes fully consumes Esri maps, location data and GIS header info is already attached to the manhole asset, making identification easier and reducing data errors.

Result / By inspecting all 8,700 manholes with this method, GMD was able to build a database in ITpipes Web with a holistic view of its entire sanitary sewer system. This web-based platform allows the district employees to have virtual access to videos and data of not only pipes, but also the manhole structures and the ground surface areas. More than 3,100 manholes had repairs made to help reduce I&I — many of which were simple repairs that made a large impact in reducing overflows during wet-weather events. 877-487-4737; www.itpipes.com



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