City purchasing robotic cutter to complete sewer main condition assessment

The City of Swift Current is spending just over $236,000 to purchase a sewer main robotic cutter which will allow city crews to properly assess the condition of the sewer main system throughout the community.

The City has a network of approximately 140 kilometres of sanitary main lines which requires a new piece of specialized equipment in order to properly conduct a condition assessment as part of the City’s asset management program.

Greg Parsons, Director of Asset Management for the City, reported at the August 24 City Council meeting that main lines of both the storm sewer and sanitary sewer system have protruding lateral services which are impeding their final condition assessments. A sewer imaging camera has allowed the City to complete a portion of their condition assessment work, but they are unable to inspect the remaining portions of the network because of the lateral services which are protruding from both commercial buildings and residences.

“Some of the issue is that we can’t put a camera down there to see because we can’t get past the closest one to the manhole,” Parsons explained. “It’s not necessarily the issue with the actual lateral service itself, it’s that we can’t get a camera past there to do a condition assessment of what condition our mains are in.”

The City opted to purchased a robotic cutter at a cost of $236,505 to provide an inhouse solution to infrastructure assessment as opposed to renting the equipment at a cost of $6,000 per week or $312,000 per year.

“As part of the condition assessments this is work that was always going to need to be done, either through contractors and consultants, and we’re just switching the work up a bit and taking care of the work that needed to be done first in order to actually provide the condition assessment,” Chief Administrative Officer Tim Marcus explained.

“The whole idea is to do an assessment of all of our infrastructure, give it some sort of rating … and then it helps us prioritize with which of that infrastructure needs replacement and helps us along with the budgeting process as well,” Parsons explained.

“We’re hoping that there’s not as many there that we’re anticipating but it’s going to be quite a process to complete this project.”

The report on the purchase notes that once city crews have completed their cutting and assessment work, the equipment could be rented out or sold to other communities to conduct their own asset management assessments.