Automation of TV Inspection Sewer Data
Jozef Szilagyi
IMS Programmer Analyst
Geoff Linschoten
Infrastructure Management Specialist
Capital Planning & Data Technologies
Planning and Public Works Department
The Regional Municipality of Halton
Introduction
The Regional Municipality of Halton is located on the northwest shoreline of Lake Ontario in southern Ontario, Canada. Geographically, Halton encompasses over 938 km
2 (362 mi
2) of land, including a 25 km (15.5 mile) shoreline on Lake Ontario. In 1996 the population was approximately 339,000, this population is expected to reach almost 442,000 by 2006, with this anticipated growth Halton has become one of Canada’s fastest growing areas.
The Planning & Public Works Department for Halton provides planning, design, construction, operations, maintenance and management of water, wastewater, regional roads, and storm water service on regional roads for the four municipalities located within the region.
In the case of Halton, the estimated value of this infrastructure used to deliver these services is currently over $2.8 billion (cdn). Given the anticipated growth described above, Halton will be challenged by the competing needs of maintaining, upgrading, and replacing the ageing infrastructure while forecasting the future needs of a growing system.
One of the key components of the infrastructure that Halton is responsible to maintain is over 1,350 km (838 mi) of wastewater mains. Not unlike most municipalities, Halton’s past practice has been to use Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Inspection Survey reports to assist with maintenance, design, and to identify the long-term needs of the existing underground wastewater collection system.
These CCTV inspection reports consisted of paper documents containing photographs depicting the general pipe conditions. Also included with the reports were notations of the observations captured by the CCTV inspector, along with a VHS videotape of the actual pipe inspection. This video was obtained to assist staff in the review of the pipe condition and to provide a tool to verify the conditions identified. As one can imagine, reviewing the VHS video, was both time consuming and tedious work.
The purpose of this report is to discuss the requirements used to develop an automated condition audit and inspection program for the wastewater pipes currently installed within the Region of Halton.
System Requirements
To identify future requirements and enhancements to the CCTV system, a detailed analysis of the existing CCTV inspection system was conducted. This initial review indicated that there was a definite need to enhance and streamline the CCTV inspection process. The following shortcomings were identified within the existing process:
- Several individual groups within the department were responsible for ordering CCTV Video inspection reports for pre-design, post construction survey and maintenance requests;
- The VHS videotapes and hard copy reports were a challenge to store and share due to the district offices being located at different locations across the region;
- This paper-based system was not integrated with the corporate GIS infrastructure data; and,
- The actual pipe condition ratings varied due to the individual pipeline inspector’s interpretation of pipe conditions, hence there was a potential for the same pipes to be surveyed and interpreted differently.
