02-22-2017 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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The camera can be deployed in the winter as there is a heater in the trailer. A Public Works employee sits at an operator station in the trailer and runs the camera from there. This would allow the City to inspect its mains in the winter months to free up more time in the summer for other maintenance activities. The majority of the mains in the City are “clean” in that they don’t have significant sediment or root build up in them so televising would satisfy the inspection requirement the City has. This would also give the City a better idea of the condition of its system with regard to cracked pipes, I&I, bad joints, dips, and other pipe imperfections which can cause problems. Having its own camera will allow the City to check for I&I in real time. If there is a significant rain event the camera can be deployed to investigate suspected trouble areas to see how much clear water is flowing while the operator is inside a dry trailer. In the City’s constant efforts to rid the system of I&I a camera can be a valuable tool. The camera itself has tires and “drives” along the sewer pipes with the cable connecting it back to the trailer. The camera can pan and tilt giving it the ability to look up sewer services, which can be big contributors to I&I. It may also show a large mass of roots in the first few feet of the service and the property owner could be notified that the service should be cleaned. All of the footage is recorded either directly onto a laptop hard drive or onto a flash drive, so storage of the footage is easy and does not require nearly as much space as the VHS tapes. The trailer package that is offered by Flexible Pipe ranges from $80,000 to $100,000 depending on some of the accessories selected. The City of Owatonna purchased a trailer unit from Flexible Pipe in 2006 and has used it for the last ten years. The camera got to be permanently foggy and they had a ten year service life for the trailer in their budget so they purchased a new trailer unit last month. The old unit is available for sale by Flexible Pipe. The camera was sent to the manufacturer and completely re- built. Staff had a demonstration of the unit last week on County Road C. The temperature was 5 degrees but the sheltered trailer allowed the operator to run the camera comfortably. The image from the camera was crystal clear with no fogging. Sometimes cold weather will fog up the lens but that was not the case last week. The price of the used unit is $42,000. There are some modifications that will be necessary, such as the addition of a cold weather hatch on one of the rear doors to allow the camera cable to run out of the trailer while the door remains closed to keep it warm. A lifting rig may also need to be added to the back of the trailer which would enable one person to set up the camera. As it currently is set up it takes two people to set it up. $3500 should cover the cost of those two additions. The only unknown at this point is the camera reader software that needs to be purchased to allow the camera and laptop to work together and also to integrate the footage onto the City’s GIS mapping system. There are options for this and staff wants to make sure the City gets the best value. The software expert for Flexible Pipe has recommended the Pipe Scan software. He is on vacation this week but staff will talk to him next week prior to the meeting and determine the best software for the unit. The maximum price for the unit, software, and additions noted above would be $59,000, which is significantly less expensive than a new unit. Staff has budgeted $100,000 for a camera in the Water and Sewer Capital Improvement Fund.