Evaluation of the Ohio Department of Transportation's current storm sewer cleaning oeprations

"January 2019."; Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-66).; Final report; Sponsoring agency: Ohio Department of Transportation, Office of Statewide Planning & Research; State Job Number 135494Final report (xv, 103 pages) -- [Fact sheet] (2 unnumbered pages)The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is in charge of constructing, maintaining and ensuring the safety of roads within its control. Proper maintenance procedures are critical in reducing the amount of funding required to sustain long lasting and safe roads. One maintenance responsibility of ODOT is to inspect and clean the storm sewer infrastructure along its roadways. If not properly maintained, storm sewers may become full of debris and flood the road with storm water, creating a safety hazard for the traveling public and negatively impacting the pavement condition. This study will provide ODOT, contractors and other state DOT's a review of an alternative equipment option that is now available. The Recycler is a piece of equipment that is similar in functionality to a Vacuum Jet Truck (VJT), but with the addition of a water recycling system used to filter the wastewater removed from sewers. The filtered wastewater may then be reused for jetting purposes, removing the need to make long refill and decanting trips. Field data were obtained by observing the VJT and Recycler operations over the course of a summer maintenance season. The data were used to model the production rates and economics associated with both the VJT and Recycler equipment options. An overall cost-benefit analysis was completed as well as an implementation plan for different types of structures, operator training and environmental settings. The team found that the Recycler studied is a viable and economically feasible option to incorporate into a DOT or contractor equipment fleet as it is 52% more productive than the VJT