Key Takeaways

• Gainesville Regional Utilities (Florida) shifted from reactive to proactive sewer maintenance by adopting acoustic assessment technology across its 671-mile collection system.
• The Sewer Line Rapid Assessment Tool (SL-RAT) screens a pipe segment in about 90 seconds, letting a two-person crew cover up to 10,000 feet of gravity sewer per day.
• This screening approach is the foundation of Gainesville’s System Wide Assessment & Maintenance Plan (SWAMP), launched in October 2022.
• RH Borden is the Authorized Service Provider for SL-RAT acoustic assessment technology across the southern and western United States, and applies this same screening approach as part of its own condition-based maintenance programs.
• Acoustic screening works best as a fast first-pass triage tool, not a replacement for CCTV, sensor-based I&I detection, or manhole condition assessment.

Gainesville Regional Utilities used acoustic assessment to inspect its 671-mile sewer system, evaluating up to 10,000 feet of pipe daily in about 90 seconds per segment.

Problem: Gainesville Regional Utilities maintains a 671-mile collections system that serves 67,000 customer connections around the city of Gainesville, Florida. As a result of their aging collections system with pipes exceeding 100 years in service, and inspection frequencies averaging 19 years, the utility encountered frequent sanitary sewer overflows and blockages. Traditional inspection methods proved too slow and costly for a system of their size, forcing them to rely heavily on reactive maintenance.

Solution: In October 2022, the utility established the System Wide Assessment & Maintenance Plan to transition from a reactive to a proactive, condition-based maintenance approach. A key component of SWAMP is the implementation of the Sewer Line Rapid Assessment Tool from InfoSense. The SL-RAT uses transmissive acoustics to give the high-level blockage conditions of a pipe segment in approximately 90 seconds. This efficient approach enables the utility’s two-person crew to evaluate upwards of 10,000 feet of gravity sewer lines daily, allowing for swift identification and resolution of problematic pipes. 

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Why a 19-Year Inspection Cycle Is a Real Problem

A 19-year average inspection frequency doesn’t sound alarming on its own, but it means that on any given day, the typical pipe segment in a system like Gainesville’s hasn’t been checked in nearly two decades. For pipe that’s already past the century mark, that’s a long window for a small crack or root intrusion to turn into a blockage nobody sees coming until it causes an overflow.

This is the math that pushes utilities toward reactive maintenance almost by default. When inspection is slow and expensive, crews end up responding to problems instead of preventing them, cleaning after a backup rather than before one. The frustrating part is that this isn’t usually a staffing or funding failure. It’s a tooling problem. Traditional CCTV inspection, while thorough, takes far longer per foot of pipe than a system this size can realistically sustain on a meaningful rotation.

How Acoustic Screening Changes the Math

The SL-RAT approach works differently from a camera crawling through pipe. A transmitting unit sends an acoustic signal from one manhole, and a receiving unit at the next manhole measures how much of that signal made it through. A clear pipe transmits sound efficiently. A pipe with a blockage, heavy sediment, or a significant obstruction absorbs more of it. That difference produces a score in well under two minutes, without a camera, without cleaning the line first, and without sending anyone into the pipe itself.

That speed is what makes a 10,000-foot daily coverage rate possible with just two people. Instead of choosing which segments to inspect based on age or a rough schedule, a utility can screen essentially everything, then send CCTV crews only to the segments the acoustic data actually flags as needing a closer look. The pipe wall condition, and any subtler defects, is a job for CCTV or other tools, not for acoustic screening. But knowing which segments are worth that closer look in the first place is exactly the problem acoustic screening is built to solve.

What This Case Study Shows About Condition-Based Maintenance

The broader lesson here isn’t really about one tool. It’s about what happens when a utility can afford to check its entire system regularly instead of a fraction of it. A 19-year inspection cycle isn’t a policy choice, it’s what happens when the cost per foot of inspection is too high to do more often. Cut that cost and that time dramatically, and the entire maintenance philosophy can shift from “wait for something to break” to “know what’s happening before it breaks.”

That shift is the foundation of what’s generally called condition-based maintenance: cleaning and repairing based on actual, current pipe condition rather than a fixed calendar or reacting to failures. Gainesville’s SWAMP program is one visible example of a utility making that shift at scale.

How RH Borden Applies This Same Approach

RH Borden is the Authorized Service Provider for SL-RAT acoustic assessment technology across the southern and western United States. For the utilities RH Borden works with directly, this same acoustic screening approach, fast, low-cost, and camera-free, forms one part of a broader condition-based maintenance program that also includes sensor-based I&I detection through BASINiQ and manhole condition assessment through Manhole Virtual Models.

The specific numbers in this case study, Gainesville’s 671 miles, 67,000 connections, and 10,000 feet screened per day, are outcomes InfoSense and Gainesville Regional Utilities documented for their own program. What RH Borden can speak to directly is how the same underlying technology performs for the utilities in its own service territory, and how it fits alongside the other tools in a full condition-based maintenance strategy.

Bringing This Same Approach to More Collection Systems

Gainesville’s shift from a 19-year inspection cycle to a proactive, condition-based maintenance plan shows what’s possible once inspection stops being the bottleneck. Acoustic screening technology like the SL-RAT doesn’t replace the rest of a condition assessment program, but it changes how much of the system a utility can actually see on a regular basis.

RH Borden brings this same acoustic screening approach, along with sensor-based I&I detection and manhole condition assessment, to utilities across the southern and western United States. If your system is still working through a lengthy inspection backlog, visit rhborden.com or reach out through the contact page to see what a faster, data-driven screening approach could look like for your collection system.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the SL-RAT, and how does it work? 

The Sewer Line Rapid Assessment Tool uses transmissive acoustics, sending a sound signal through a pipe segment from one manhole and measuring how much reaches the receiving unit at the next. Blockages and heavy sediment absorb more of the signal, producing a score that flags which segments need further attention.

Is RH Borden connected to the Gainesville project described in this case study? 

This case study documents Gainesville Regional Utilities’ own System Wide Assessment & Maintenance Plan using SL-RAT technology from InfoSense. RH Borden is the Authorized Service Provider for this same SL-RAT technology across the southern and western United States and applies the same acoustic screening approach for the utilities it works with directly.

How fast is acoustic screening compared to traditional inspection? 

A two-person crew using SL-RAT technology can typically screen up to 10,000 feet of gravity sewer per day, with each segment assessed in roughly 90 seconds. That’s a significant increase in coverage compared to methods that require a full CCTV crawl of every segment.

Does acoustic screening replace CCTV inspection? 

No. Acoustic screening identifies which segments are likely blocked or restricted, so CCTV crews can focus their time on the segments that actually need a closer visual look, rather than inspecting an entire system on a fixed rotation.