Portable inspection with the convenience of a vehicle system
Cleaning as well as full and complete inspection of a 6.1 km long sewage collector, partly located in the forest, taking into account the surrounding fields in agricultural use.
Challenge
Soil displacements due to the agricultural use of land and extensive wild growth in the landscape conservation areas adversely affect the operation of the sewer.
For the upcoming work, the difficulties lay in reaching the manhole structures. In order to bring the equipment for a professional TV inspection and, above all, for the sewer cleaning required beforehand to the site of operation, there were no possibilities of access to the sewer reaches.
Solution
In order to reach the manholes, it was necessary, among other things, to go into the middle of the forest away from the narrow path, which already contained obstacles: swampy, slushy ground with fallen trees, streams and uncontrolled growth had to be passed.
The MainLite easy was carried over streams and holes or lifted between fallen trees. This was easily done by two employees, given the light weight of 41 kg. Thanks to the large pneumatic tyres, the compact MainLite easy could be pulled over the uneven forest paths by one person without difficulty using the fold-out transport handle.
The system with a PC was intuitive to operate via the BP 100 control panel and permitted a fully-fledged inspection. With the 2 joysticks, the ORPHEUS 2 pan and rotate camera and the T 76 camera tractor could be easily operated. The cable length was measured via the counter on the motor-driven cable winch KT 156 with 150 metres of camera cable.
The measured value was transmitted to the control panel and overlaid on the video.
Result
The entire collector sewer with a length of 6.1 km was registered as currently inspected and was handed over to another division of the environmental department for evaluation of the inspection and, if necessary, subsequent rehabilitation planning.
The compact design, the large wheels and the foldable transport handle of the MainLite easy made it possible to carry out a full-scale inspection of the sewers below the densely overgrown wooded area, which were inaccessible to an inspection vehicle.
Company introduction
The environmental department of the city of Bielefeld is the operator of the public wastewater system of this large city with a population of over 334,000 in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
At present, Bielefeld's sewer system comprises around 1,900 kilometres, plus another 1,000 kilometres of laterals. Approximately 30% of the Bielefeld sewer system consists of combined sewers and 70% of separate sewers. The usual method of monitoring the sewers is TV inspection by the department's own staff.
