A central source for insights, tools, and updates on acoustic sewer inspection technology, wastewater infrastructure assessment, and cost-effective solutions for municipal inspection services and collection system optimization.
Oakland, Maine is home to about 6,200 residents and maintains 11.6 miles of gravity sewer pipe. Much of the system consists of PVC, clay, transite, and fiberglass lines. The town does not own its own cleaning or CCTV equipment.
With limited budget and outsourced maintenance, Oakland previously cleaned only one mile of pipe per year. The town needed a low-cost method to assess and prioritize the entire system.
Through a short-term subscription, Oakland deployed the SL-RAT® to screen its entire gravity collection system in 14 days. The acoustic results identified the 15% of pipes that needed cleaning or further evaluation.
The inspection program delivered over $51,000 in savings while helping the town comply with insurance due diligence requirements and identify problematic pipe segments. Follow-up screenings revealed root growth and other recurring issues that were not caught during regular cleaning.
The SL-RAT serves two purposes in Oakland – assessing which pipes are currently blocked and identifying underlying issues in our system. Using the SL-RAT, we have reduced both cleaning costs and SSO risks in our system saving us significant time and money
