2                                                                                                                               Utiligram / November-December 2006

Each year, the Water Utility budgets enough money

to upgrade a certain percentage of its vehicles and construction equipment to ensure that employees have the most reliable tools available to carry out their day-to-day mission.  This year, money was set aside to upgrade the existing TV truck.  The TV truck is essentially a television studio on wheels and comes fully equipped with television camera,

monitoring and recording equipment.  The only

difference is that the stage is the inside of a sanitary sewer pipe and the actors—well, we leave that to your imagination.

 

Initially, the Utility had planned to

rehabilitate the

existing TV truck, thinking that this approach would be the most economical in the long run.  This would have required the

complete removal of the equipment inside the truck, leaving only an empty cargo box, and then new equipment would have to be “shoehorned” into the space available.  After several iterations of

trying to fit the new modern equipment into a

limited amount of space and not really being

satisfied with the results, Airies, the manufacturer of the TV truck, informed the Utility that a

demonstrator version was available for purchase.  The Utility was able to trade-in the old truck and purchase the new demonstrator truck and stay within the amount of money allotted in the budget.

 

The new truck is equipped with a tractor camera.  This allows the Utility to inspect sanitary sewers without first having to clean them.  In the past, the flusher truck had to be utilized to push a cable through the sewer, which would then pull the camera back through the pipe.  Now the camera is simply lowered into a manhole and sent on its way.  This not only frees up the flusher truck for other uses, but is a lot faster than the old method.

 

The camera system is installed inside a 16-foot cargo box mounted on a 2006 Ford E-450 gas-powered chassis.  The system includes a zoom-pan-tilt camera, 6-wheel transporter (tractor) and

software with MPEG capability.  The camera

features 360 degree continuous rotation, 10X

optical zoom, auto-focus and a super bright LED illumination system.  The tractor is also equipped with 1,000 feet of coaxial cable to send back the television signal.

 

The computer system includes a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 120 GB hard drive, 120 GB external hard drive, wireless keyboard and mouse, and three

monitors.  One monitor  is for the computer, one monitor

displays what the camera is

viewing, and the other monitor faces the rear of the vehicle, so that it can be viewed by the outside operator.

 

A wash down system helps to keep all of the

equipment clean and ready for use.  The heated and air conditioned interior will keep the operators comfortable while they explore the depths of Kenosha’s sanitary sewers.  Whenever the Utility needs to know the “poop” on a particular problem sewer, it can get an accurate picture of the

condition of the sanitary sewer pipe without having to do an extensive amount of digging to expose it.

2006 Ford E-450 Hi-Cube Box Truck