THE IMPORTANCE OF CATCH BASIN CLEANING

Out of sight, out of mind.

As the general population travel on their day-to-day commute, our suspicion is that few drivers, if any, are aware of the copious amount of sewer grates — located every few feet throughout America’s roadways.  These common sewer grates, otherwise know as catch basin lids, are essential to the regular operations of functioning sewer systems.

In our industry, we understand the inherent importance of catch basin lids, as well as the importance of keeping these structures and associated piping clean for the system to function properly.  For others new to the topic, these catch basins collect storm water from roadways and allow the storm water to traverse underground through a piping system to relieve the roadways from a water buildup or flooding.

Catch Basins: Hiding in plain sight.

Digging a little deeper, a catch basin structure collects storm water as it flows from the roads.  Within each catch basin structure there will always be at least one outgoing pipe (water travels “out”) with most systems also having an incoming pipe (water travels “in”) as well creating a web of connecting pipes throughout the infrastructure plan underground as seen in the diagram below.

Examining the most common types of catch basin storm systems.

AN INTERCONNECTED NETWORK

There are hundreds of thousands of linear storm pipes operating deep beneath the surface to ensure roadways remain consistently clear of storm water.  Often, a main storm line will run down a street and the catch basins on either side of the street will tie into the main storm line via their associated outgoing pipes.  The storm mains, however, are the systems arteries with a larger diameter pipe in order to provide capacity sufficient to support/transport large amounts of water flowing in from the catch basins that tie into the larger storm main pipe. Storm mains, like any other part of infrastructure, are precisely engineered to ensure the system’s optimal function — most importantly however, is the pitch of the piping required to ensure proper water flow.

A storm system is an open system — meaning that as water flows in through the grated catch basin lid, along comes road debris often causing interruptions to proper system function.  Examples consist of, but are not limited to the following: dirt, rocks, gravel, landscape debris or garbage.  As you can imagine, this “debris” often wreaks havoc on the proper flow and function of a storm system.  Fortunately, the brunt of the debris is collected by the catch basins before entering the storm system; however, as debris builds up at any individual catch basin, water flow into the outgoing pipe is prohibited, resulting in system backups or in the worst case scenario, flooding.

At Pipetek Infrastructure Services, one of the most important services we provide is storm catch basin cleaning.  With our combination vehicles, our team can vacuum any/all water and debris out of the catch basins.  Depending upon debris levels, this process will take time in order to ensure that we have met the customers’ needs at the highest standard.  We begin by vacuuming debris and water; then, we use high powered water to jet and again vacuum the incoming and outgoing lines for each associated catch basin ensuring that the targeted area of the storm system is free of debris allowing for normal operation of the catch basins and the system as a whole.  This regular catch basin maintenance is extremely important to alleviate potential system backups or flooding on the roadway.

Generally, we recommend a thorough cleaning of the storm systems at least once annually.  We recommend undergoing system cleanings in early Spring since during Winter, roads are routinely sanded/salted which melts and ultimately travels to the roadside catch basins with the potential to clog the system flow.  When properly cleaned, removal of this Winter build up allows for optimal system function during the seasonal rains of Spring and Summer.

The most significant instances encountered at Pipetek to date were during 2021 aiding the recent flooding in Detroit, MI. Pipetek was brought in to assist in freeing the city’s catch basins of debris and cleaning both the catch basins and associated piping to allow for normal operation of the storm system and to alleviate the storm-induced flooding impacting roadways and residential homes.  During numerous months with multiple teams working simultaneously across sites in Detroit, our team addressed hundreds of storm system catch basins and their associated lines — returning function to the city’s storm system as a whole.  This daunting and large-scale task was made possible by the efforts of our Pipetek team, who unilaterally committed to this clean-up operation and successfully restored system functioning to the residents of Detroit.

For more information about storm systems or catch basin cleaning — follow Pipetek Infrastructure Services on the following social media platforms.