January 27, 2012

From time to time, something breaks. There is a valve on the pipe that runs into each digester at both Wastewater Treatment plants. That valve is connected to a wheel above ground which opens and shuts the flow of sludge to that particular digester. This allows our crews to transfer sludge to a different digester when necessary. Recently, one of the transfer valves broke off at the Autauga Creek facility.

Crew digging out around the valve.

This area was dug out with a backhoe and then crews manually uncovered the broken valve.

Better view of the valve.

Using the HyrdroJet (hydrowasher) truck to vacuum out water and mud.

Crews installed a pipe around the new valve.

They poured a concrete slab around the pipe.

Finished access to the transfer valves.

It took a crew of 5, with a backhoe and the hydrowasher, to fix this valve over a three day period. If it had not been for weather issues, crews could have finished in one day. From now on when a valve breaks, it will only take a crew of 2 personnel (no backhoe, no hydrowasher) 1 hour to fix the problem. We commend Rick Teague and Dale Gandy, and their crews, on being innovative in cutting repair costs.