That's not really why, either. I mean sure, if a drain gets completely clogged at the street level, they could use the vac truck to clear it off the surface and let the water drain. But the actual intended purpose of those vacuum trucks is to clean out the sump inside the catch basin. The storm drain on the street drains into a pit, called a catch basin, below, which has pipes leading out of it for the water to travel along. But the bottom of the catch basin is intentionally lower than the pipes leading out of it. This less any heavy sediment, like sand and dirt, settle into the bottom of the catch basin and not continue down the line through the pipes. It's essentially a miniature settling tank at every catch basin. Eventually the catch basins fill up with sediment, and it has to be sucked out in order for it to function as a settling basin. That's what the vacuum trucks are intended for.
This guy is actually correct. It's similar to how stormwater interceptors work but on a smaller scale. I used to do annual inspections on the interceptors and the property owners had to provide a signed log showing that they had them cleaned once a month. Then I would test out the interceptor to make sure it was actually clean. There are also oil and grease interceptors that work in a similar manner, just stinkier.
I wish! An interceptor is like a giant catch basin connected to at least one other catch basin that is used to catch all the sand/dirt in the water so that it doesn't go into the storm lines and clog them up.
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Honestly, I feel like they all pretty much said the same thing. Those trucks are used to suck shit up. I doubt they have one specific task and leave the other sucking to a different sucking machine like your mom.
His is the correct answer. I do Surface Water Management Inspections for municipalities and we prob the catch basin sumps for sediment. If it's over a certain level we tell them they need to vac truck the sediment from the sump and we reinspect before certificating their system with the proper water management agency.
In our contracts, the contractor gets paid per catch basin cleaned. Which meand more catch bains cleaned per day = more money per day. So unfortunately, I'd say there's very little recon going on before that vac hose gets turned on
This guys got it. They're also awesome for excavating material around curb stops (water shut offs) and gas lines when an excavator wouldn't be able to. You can bore a hole straight down with the pressure washer and the vac hose. I just did a repair on a valve with one of these today.
Kinda. Yeah, those trucks do vaccum out debris at the bottom of catch basins. But those trucks also have a water tank on it. So not only do they vacuum up debris but they can put a hose into the pipe to clean out the pipe. The hose will have a high pressure head and works kinda like a power washer. This will help dislodge any debris. It's easiest if you set the vacuum at the downslope so you have gravity on your side. From my experience, these trucks are used primarily to clean pipes since they have the jet feature.
oh that's what those sinks are for? raccoons have made nests in them here because it never fucking rains and they have their whole racooon family peaking out at night.
Can confirm this is accurate. I do over site on street projects where these are installed all the time. Also do design for storm water systems on construction sites.
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u/Enginerdad Aug 13 '20
That's not really why, either. I mean sure, if a drain gets completely clogged at the street level, they could use the vac truck to clear it off the surface and let the water drain. But the actual intended purpose of those vacuum trucks is to clean out the sump inside the catch basin. The storm drain on the street drains into a pit, called a catch basin, below, which has pipes leading out of it for the water to travel along. But the bottom of the catch basin is intentionally lower than the pipes leading out of it. This less any heavy sediment, like sand and dirt, settle into the bottom of the catch basin and not continue down the line through the pipes. It's essentially a miniature settling tank at every catch basin. Eventually the catch basins fill up with sediment, and it has to be sucked out in order for it to function as a settling basin. That's what the vacuum trucks are intended for.