Underground robots might be coming soon to Peachtree City.
Although a final decision hasn’t yet been made, the city’s Water and Sewer Authority is exploring a proposal to have semi-autonomous robots conduct video camera inspections of sewer pipes.
The benefit of the proposal from Redzone Robotics is that it will allow the rest of the city’s sewer pipes to be inspected over a 15-month period. That’s a big change from the current process of inspecting a small portion of the pipe each year over a 10-year cycle.
The net result will be a “Google Earth” type archive of video inspections and various data about the sewer system. The software will allow for video to be accessed with a changeable viewpoint so the user can see inside the pipe in a number of different directions.
WASA uses video inspections to determine whether pipes are damaged or need to be cleaned out. In recent years, those inspections have been contracted out to private firms.
Tree roots, for example, are common culprits for blocked sewer pipes.
The robots would only be going in WASA’s collection system, not into any privately-owned lines leading to the system.
The cost, at $178,256 a year for seven years, is comparable to WASA’s annual budget for video inspections, officials said. In fact, Redzone is fronting the financing at zero percent interest, taking a risk that future WASA boards might decide not to fund the expense.
If that happens, WASA would have 30 days to migrate all the Redzone data to another platform before the company deletes it from its servers, a Redzone official told the WASA board at its regular meeting Monday.
WASA stopped short of entering the contract with Redzone Monday, but they authorized General Manager Stephen Hogan and board attorney Mark Oldenburg to continue contract negotiations on their behalf.
The big upside of having the inspections done at once is it will provide a clear picture for WASA’s capital needs in the near future, officials said. Another benefit is that the robots are portable so there will be no need for traffic control on the surface streets while the inspection is underway, said Redzone Robotics Vice President Ken Wolf.
