After the two sanitary sewer cave-ins in downtown Indianapolis during the summer of 2018, Bill Adams, Technical Specialist V, Program and Technical Services, used existing software to create a mobile application to assist with infrastructure inspections. Since then, the utilization of the mobile app technology has been deployed throughout Citizens and has greatly increased productivity.
Prior to the referenced incidents, Citizens employees were using an app only for inspecting sewer manholes. After the cave-ins, Adams used similar technology to pilot a process for assessing possible infrastructure defects at the surface level enabling crews to record 187 surface defects, including holes, voids, dips, buckling, and cracks.
Around the same time, the gas division also began using the mobile app technology. Today, it’s being
used to perform leak survey, critical valve, and cathodic protection inspections. The water utility also is using the app technology to improve the efficiency of many everyday tasks, such as hydrant flushing tests and valve inspections.“Utilizing the application for the downtown assessment project proved extremely beneficial in
getting accurate data from the field to the office,” said Bill Price, Manager, Wastewater Field Operations. “It allowed two field crews to cover the entire mile square downtown area in days, as opposed to months. The data retrieved – including pictures, defects, and GPS coordinates – allows for relatively quick table-top triages to occur and helps prioritize needed repairs.”
The app connects with Citizens’ Geographic Information System (GIS) – eliminating the need to reference paper maps – and allows field employees to answer a series of questions about each infrastructure location and attach pictures.
Previously, in addition to using paper maps, crews filled out paper forms to document their work, and then office personnel would manually enter the data into spreadsheets. Another benefit of using an app is that information is accessible in real time, thus, an employee in the office can see the data as soon as a field employee captures it.
Future plans include using the technology for street cut restoration, cross bore applications, stream crossing inspections, and the wastewater service request application.
Joe Nagy, right, who was instrumental in creating the survey for the Mile Square inspection, shows intern Payton Staman how to use the mobile application.
