Giokas, Karol

Karol Giokas has a BS and Master's in Mechanical Engineering, with over 25 years of diverse engineering and project management background, working...

Joined:

About Giokas, Karol

Karol Giokas has a BS and Master's in Mechanical Engineering, with over 25 years of diverse engineering and project management background, working first in aerospace and then in the environmental industry. Ms. Giokas is a licensed PE in Iowa, Illinois, and Nebraska, and has been responsible for SSES, flow metering, modeling, GIS, and rehabilitation project management of sanitary, combined, and storm sewers in those states.

Giokas, Karol

Titles from this speaker

Managing Storm Sewer Assets in Arlington Heights, IL

Abstract

Challenge
The Village of Arlington Heights, Illinois (VAH), is a community of approximately 75,000 residents northwest of Chicago. The Village, located in the Des Plaines River watershed, has a mix of separate sanitary sewers (â‰ˆ920,000 lf)and separate storm sewers (â‰ˆ1,100,000 lf) as well as a combined sewer (â‰ˆ350,000 lf) in the older downtown area. The sanitary and combined flow discharges to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) for treatment while the separate storm sewer system discharges to area streams and waterways. In 2015, the Village's Utility Superintendent realized the Village did not have a robust storm sewer asset inventory and wanted to understand what infrastructure they had, where it was located, and what condition it was in. The Superintendent was planning to retire in four years, and wanted to prioritize building the storm sewer inventory before he retired. Solution/Approach The Village determined that a combination of storm sewer televising (CCTV) and select manhole and structure inspections and surveys would provide the information needed to update the Village GIS with accurate GPS locations, asset attributes, and condition data. RedZone Robotics (RZ), partnering with RJN Group, was selected to perform the CCTV work and the manhole inspections. RJN was responsible for the GIS data integration, manhole rim survey, and measurements at the manholes. The multi-phase project was initiated with a small pilot area and then expanded into four areas covering the rest of the separate storm sewer system, with the intent of completing the inventory in four years. Initially, RedZone's SOLOÂ® pipeline inspection robot camera system was used to record conditions in the manholes and for the 8 to 12-inch sewers. Standard CCTV cameras inspected sewers larger than 12 inches, and multi-sensor inspections (MSI) were conducted in larger sewers with flows present. The primary Village goal for the program was to incorporate all captured findings-asset locations, details, and conditions, including NASSCO PACP ratings-in their in-house GIS to make it easily accessible to Village staff for operations and maintenance programming, and capital planning. This required conversion and integration of data from the standard RedZone ICOM® software deliverable. Work began in early 2016 in the pilot area and continued through the four phases shown in the exhibit above. -CCTV was performed using the SOLO camera, the standard CCTV camera, and the Profiler® (MSI). -Manhole inspections and locates were performed on selected structures designated by the Village. -Inspection data, including connectivity, diameters, materials, and NASSCO ratings, were updated in the GIS. Condition data was used to identify areas with issues and then plan sewer repairs. Challenges Developing a comprehensive storm sewer asset inventory presented unique challenges during data collection and management. -Data Collection Challenges --Dirty storm sewers required extra cleaning. The storm sewers were actually found to be dirtier than typical sanitary sewers. --The SOLO camera could not navigate past much of the debris, which required frequent communication between RZ and VAH. By the end of the project, RZ performed all the sewer televising with a standard CCTV camera instead of the SOLO. --Televising connections between catch basins, inlets, and manholes, proved to be difficult and time consuming; many of these were pulled out of the project. -Data Management Challenges --Coordination between RZ field staff, RZ coding staff, VAH GIS staff, VAH PW staff, RJN GIS staff, RJN field staff, and Village GIS consultant -Initially, three entities were involved in the data coordination: The Village of Arlington Heights (Owner) with two versions of the in-house GIS: one managed by the Public Works Department (PWD) and the other by the Engineering/GIS department. RedZone Robotics (Prime contractor)-CCTV and manhole inspections RJN Group (Sub-contractor)-Manhole survey and GIS -After the pilot phase, the Village GIS analyst retired, and the Village out-sourced their GIS, adding a fourth entity: Municipal GIS Partners (MGP-Village GIS consultant) --Poor initial maps, which are common in municipal storm sewer GIS layers --Map update volumes with complex, multi-party coordination -Incorporating updates involved extensive back-and-forth communications between all parties Updating AssetIDs for pipes, structures, updating connections, VAH field verifying questions, etc. -Making sure all parties are in sync after updates --Incorporation of data into Village GIS, not ICOM -- Staff turnover: VAH, RJN, RZ, MGP Because of the challenges, the program was not completed until December 2022. The Utility Superintendent driving the program did retire in Jan 2021, and the project continued. Only one team member that started the project in 2016 was still involved when the project was completed in 2022!

Conclusion/Recommendations
The asset survey, attribute, and condition data was collected and incorporated into the Village GIS at a slower rate than initially planned. The Arlington Heights storm asset inventory is much improved. The storm sewers were cleaned, and the Village has access to the video, inspection reports, pictures, and ratings provided by the PACP and MACP coding via a single GIS platform. Lessons Learned -Storm sewer CCTV has inherent challenges -Inspection technologies have operating limitations and should be selected with due diligence -Communicate, communicate, communicate -Map updates take time -Better to have the project engineer-led rather than contractor-led.

This paper was presented at the WEF Stormwater Summit, June 27-29, 2023.

SpeakerGiokas, Karol

Presentation time

15:45:00

16:15:00

Session time

13:30:00

16:45:00

SessionSession 04: Stormwater Asset Management

Session number04

Session locationKansas City Convention Center

TopicStormwater Asset Management, Innovation and Technology in Stormwater Management

Author(s)

J. Zaharopoulos

Author(s)J. Zaharopoulos1; K. Giokas2;

Author affiliation(s)Village of Arlington Heights1; RJN Group2;

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date Jun 2023

DOI10.2175/193864718825158970

Volume / Issue

Content sourceStormwater

Word count9

Base text size -

Giokas, Karol

About Giokas, Karol

My Recent Activity