Sewer service

History

ARA Pustertal AG operates the five wastewater treatment plants of the optimal catchment area OG 4 and the associated main collector owned by the wastewater consortium Pustertal. The management contract covers all costs and services incurred including ordinary and extraordinary maintenance and repair work for the duration of the contractually agreed operating years. The planning and execution of the work for the construction of the various main collectors were subdivided into different construction lots and carried out by the respective wastewater associations or municipalities. The collection and discharge of waste water from the 28 connected municipalities, with a total area of 2.168 km², is carried out via a sewerage network with a total length of 132 km. Drainage is carried out both in a mixing system and in a separation system. The sewer network consists entirely of gravity pipes.

Key data for main collector

Total length	132km
Shaft structures	2.136 Stk.
Pipe diameters:	Ø 200 - 1.100mm
Middle age:	25 years
Special constructions:	Dücker, pipe bridges, fall structures, rainwater relief basins, tunnel sections

What does the canal service do?

The entire main collector is celebrated by the canal inspectors once a year. Each manhole cover is opened, the dirt trap buckets emptied and the manholes checked for their structural condition. In addition, the deposits, the water pattern and connections are checked and recorded. Minor repair work is carried out by the inspectors and more extensive repairs are outsourced to external companies. Cleaning is carried out annually around 10% of the total network, which corresponds to about 13km. This ensures that the requirements of the regulations are met. TV recordings are made and the damage thus determined is repaired as quickly as possible to ensure the tightness of the network. More extensive damage will be dealt with through projects and smaller works will be handed over to specialised companies for execution. The entire sewer network is surveyed and all relevant data is continuously entered into the geoinformation system and the maintenance programme in order to obtain an overall picture of the sewer network which can be used for work. The sewer service also maintains all measuring stations, special structures and rainwater retention basins in the catchment area. For new connections and route relocations, the sewer service provides advice to the planning offices and municipalities and checks their proper execution.

Measuring stations

Distributed over the entire sewer network, we operate a total of 29 measuring stations. The measured quantities are sent online to the respective sewage treatment plants and can be used there by the staff for monitoring and billing the wastewater quantities to the communities. All measuring stations are regularly serviced and checked every year by an external company to ensure the plausibility of the data. Both radar and ultrasonic measuring systems are used.

Sewer cleaning

The cleaning of sewer systems is an essential part of maintenance. It is used:

To remove deposits as part of regular maintenance
For the removal of blockages
As a preparatory measure for the sewer inspection
As a preparatory measure for repairing the damage

The regulations give about 10% of the sewer network to be cleaned each year before and we comply with this requirement. When choosing the cleaning vehicle, it was important to us to choose a compact and versatile vehicle. It was also important to us to ensure continuous rinsing operation, especially as the water hydrants are often very far away and it is no longer appropriate to clean wastewater pipes with drinking water. Therefore the choice fell on a vehicle with water treatment. This vehicle can be used to clean sewers with a length of over 200m in a wide variety of diameters. This vehicle is also used for the disposal of small sewage treatment plants and is used for a wide variety of cleaning work at sewage treatment plants and pumping stations.

Sewer service

Key data for main collector

What does the canal service do?

Measuring stations

Sewer cleaning

Further Info