Farnsworth Group Sewer Rehabilitation Solutions for Calumet City

Farnsworth Group is a US engineering, architecture, and surveying firm with a history dating back to the 1890s. They offer a wide range of services, including electrical, mechanical, structural, and civil engineering, as well as architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture. With over 500 employees, they focus on delivering projects that meet their clients’ needs through collaboration and innovative solutions.

Farnsworth Group have worked with Calumet City to inspect and rehabilitate their aging storm and combined sewer mains. Their storm system is also undersized which causes basements to back up during heavy rainfall events.  

The Challenge & Opportunity

Calumet City experienced a 500-year rain event on September 17, 2023. This major rain event caused the City to be proactive in identifying possible sewer concerns in the areas that experienced heavy flooding. These critical locations were selected to be part of the 2023 Emergency Sewer Cleaning and Televising Project. The impact of the flooding required a fast turnaround facility analysis to be able to determine the best course of action to address major stormwater concerns in the area.

The Solution

VAPAR distinguished itself through its innovative technology in sewer assessments. The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in evaluating sewer infrastructure opens new avenues to meet client needs. Additionally, VAPAR excels in collaborative communication and the overall delivery of their product.

Working collaboratively together the core scope of the implementation:

• Contractors to complete the CCTV inspections
• Upload and process them via VAPAR.Solutions
• Asset Owner review of the asset conditional defects and repair recommendations
• Generate a Costing Report categorized by the condition grade and identified defects
• Integrate asset condition data into Farnsworth Group mapping

Results

By collectively implementing VAPAR’s AI-powered platform customers experience a significant boost in their operational efficiency:

• Using VAPAR.Solutions, once the video was uploaded and ready for review, the time it took to review the inspection frames and detail reports was 3 times quicker than the previous process.
• The inspection output details and repair recommendation reports from VAPAR.Solutions helped assist Farnsworth generate a facility report on the sewers assessed. This report will be integrated in the City’s Infrastructure Capital Plan to provide the City a path to rehabilitate its infrastructure.
• The frames and asset details in VAPAR.Solutions are presented in an organized manner. Additionally, by presenting both a structural grade and a service grade for each asset, allowed Farnsworth to prioritize the locations that need maintenance and rehabilitation.
• The data presented by VAPAR.Solutions can be used to create two types of reports: inspection reports and cost estimating reports. Both reports are used for capital planning and assist in developing future construction projects whether they are sewer maintenance, rehabilitation, or related projects such as road improvements.
• The data generated by VAPAR.Solutions can be plotted in a geo-database which allows the City to have a more wholistic view of the sewer system.

“The outputs from VAPAR.Solutions were easily able to be integrated in the City’s Capital Infrastructure Plan to provide the city the optimal path to rehabilitate its infrastructure.”

VAPAR has provided a platform that enabled Farnsworth Group to enhance their operational effectiveness. Farnsworth utilized VAPAR’s inspection output details and repair recommendation reports to perform asset management for wastewater systems. This allowed Farnsworth to prioritize maintenance and rehabilitation methods for Calumet City sewers based on cost estimation reports for capital planning and plan for future construction projects.