As summer heats up, so do thunderstorms. This can mean sudden inundation of heavy rain, increasing the risk of dangerous flooding for your assets. Flooding is a serious issue that is exacerbated by blocked culverts which can cause road collapse resulting in trapped residents at best and loss of life at worst. To stay ahead of the game, a proactive culvert condition assessment and cleaning plan helps prevent dangerous roadway flooding.
Reactive Culvert Cleaning Has a High Price Tag
Culverts can be difficult to access, making it easy to put off regularly assessing their condition. Unfortunately, with this approach asset managers only become aware of blocked culverts when a storm rolls in. By then it’s too late to prevent dangerous flooding or road collapse.
Addressing emergencies is paramount but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t challenging. Multiple high-stakes events can quickly exhaust staff, equipment, and budgets. Tasks get backlogged and expenses can mount including:
- Labor costs in the form of wages and benefits for the crew members who work on the emergency mobilization.
- Equipment costs such as renting or deploying any necessary equipment like excavators, dump trucks, or bulldozers.
- Transportation costs include transporting the crew and equipment to the job site.
- Overtime pay can be a factor if the emergency mobilization requires work outside of normal business hours.
- Permits and fees might be required to carry out the emergency mobilization.
- Material costs can include any materials needed for the job such as sand, gravel, or concrete.
Proactive Culvert Cleaning Saves Time, Money, and Lives
For years, PILLAR has helped municipalities and DOTs manage assets. In addition to our planning and execution expertise, we have tools that makes it easy to collect geospatial data in underground assets. We deploy the DeepTrekker 240 L Pipe Crawler robot to safely and efficiently identify culvert conditions and possible flaws. It’s portable, submersible, and can access areas that are difficult or unsafe for humans to enter. Its rugged design and camera with full functionality give you complete control of your data collection and assessment.
When you combine this tool with a management plan created specifically for culverts in your service area, you’ll have a proactive plan that allows you to schedule crews to maintain culverts regular hours in good weather. You’ll likely experience less flooding and safer roadways too.
This planned approach saves you time and money because you’ll have less backlogged tasks and unplanned expense related to crisis management. And your team will love the culture of sustainability that develops as a result.
Contact PILLAR
Creating a proactive plan for your transportation assets doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With our decades of combined experience, PILLAR can help you stay in front of potential emergencies like clogged culverts. Book a discovery meeting with PILLAR to learn more about how we can help you develop a systematic solution for your transportation infrastructure.