V&A Consulting Engineers Announces the Release of Their Proprietary VANDA® GRAVITY MAIN CLEANING INDEX

OAKLAND, Calif., April 6, 2022 (Newswire.com) - The VANDA® Gravity Main Cleaning Index was created by V&A to provide a standard for recording condition assessment data during gravity main cleaning with objective criteria. The index presents typical examples of conditions observed when cleaning gravity main segments. This index also becomes the standard rating methodology for machine learning need-for-cleaning predictions (characterized as LOF—likelihood of failure) generated by V&A's data science services.

"The development of our index supports improved data recording and standardized reporting. We are driven to contribute to the water and wastewater industries with innovation, alignment, and collaboration, and the indexes are just one way we are supporting municipalities," said Debra Kaye, V&A CE0 & President.

The index is presented as a durable ruler to be a tool for professionals assessing and reporting gravity main cleaning conditions. The VANDA® Gravity Main Cleaning Index facilitates data collection that builds a foundation for data analysis and improved gravity main cleaning. The adoption of a standardized index, positions collection systems for low cost, sophisticated analytics that provides maintenance supervisors with insights for improving the cleaning processes.

"V&A has been working with collection systems for the past two years to understand how to enable data-driven recommendations to gravity main cleaning process decision making. Because gravity mains are typically cleaned prior to CCTV inspection, CCTV data that provides operational guidance for removal of FOG, roots, or debris is limited," said Lars Stenstedt, V&A Data Science Manager. "Promoting the adoption of a cleaning condition assessment data standard is an important step in enabling collection systems to take advantage of available data science techniques and processes to become as efficient as possible with sewer system overflow (SSO) prevention maintenance."

CWEA Annual Conference attendees are invited to visit booth #629 for free copy of the VANDA® Cleaning Index and attend "Gravity Sewer Main Cleaning: Innovative Use of Data Science for Optimization" presented by Lars Stenstedt on April 11, 10 a.m. at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento 1209 L Street.

"Padre Dam has been collecting condition assessment data during gravity main cleaning for many years. This type of data has enabled Padre Dam to leverage our cleaning crew knowledge and observations for continuous improvement of our maintenance processes, Padre Dam supports V&A's promotion of the importance of gathering this kind of condition assessment data during gravity main cleaning," said Daniel Lockart, Maintenance Supervisor, Padre Dam Municipal Water District.

"The Town of Hillsborough collects condition assessment data during the cleaning process and has been working with V&A on the development of this standard index for the past year," said Rick Pina, Sewer Supervisor, Town of Hillsborough. "The process of developing this standard by leveraging senior staff and their institutional knowledge has enabled Hillsborough to streamline the onboarding and training of new maintenance staff. Understanding data-driven predictions helps us to focus our maintenance efforts removing FOG, roots and debris, as well as developing future CIP projects for the collection system."

About V&A Consulting Engineers

Headquartered in Oakland, CA, with offices in San Diego, CA, Houston, TX, and Sarasota, Florida, and founded in 1979, V&A Consulting Engineers (V&A) is a multidisciplined engineering team, led by Debra Kaye, CEO, concentrating on civil infrastructure—primarily in the fields of water, wastewater, and light rail transit. Visit http://www.vaengineering.com. 

Media Contact:  Robin Rhea| rrhea@vaengineering.com 510.903.6600

Source: V&A Consulting Engineers