Utility Line Services Responsibilities and Operation
The Utility Line Services (ULS) Division is responsible for the maintenance of more than 960 miles of water lines, 900 miles of sanitary sewer lines and more than 4,000 fire hydrants within the Water Authority service area. The service area includes the City of Roanoke and Roanoke County (excluding east Roanoke County between Vinton and Bedford County). The ULS division includes twelve crews administered by a manager, two water superintendents and two sewer superintendents.
The twelve construction/maintenance crews (six water and six sewer) are responsible for installing new water and sewer services, repairing or replacing damaged water and sewer lines and associated maintenance activities.
Three of the sewer crews are assigned to perform maintenance of sewer lines and associated appurtenances. These crews inspect the sewer lines by placing closed-circuit television cameras in the line and videotaping the condition of the line. If the line is found to be damaged, a work order is initiated and forwarded to a construction crew for repairs. These maintenance crews also respond to sewer backup and overflow calls and remove blockages with pressurized water or a mechanical rodding machine. Finally, these crews maintain a detailed list of areas with recurring issues and periodically clean these lines to eliminate future backups.
All crews work closely with the Water Operations Division on water break repairs and with the ULS sewer maintenance crews and Wastewater Division’s Sanitary Sewer Evaluation and Rehabilitation (SSE/R) section to repair sanitary sewers that are receiving inflow and infiltration of stormwater or groundwater.
ULS maintains a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week emergency standby group of employees to address calls that occur after regular working hours. The standby group is staffed each week by two of the twelve crews, with the crews rotating through standby duty. All crews, regardless of normal assignments, will respond to any emergency while on standby. This requires all crews to be competent in repairs and maintenance of both water and sewer systems.
ULS also employs a mechanic to maintain equipment and a warehouse stock controller to maintain inventory. Office support staff includes an office manager, administrative assistant, account clerk and a building maintenance worker.