From 160,000 to 300,000 Linear Feet — How DELCORA Doubled Its Assessment Capacity with SewerAI

Overview

DELCORA — the Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority — is a municipal authority responsible for the safe collection, transmission, treatment, and disposal of approximately 65 million gallons per day of wastewater generated across Delaware County and parts of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Managing 180 miles of aging pipe under a consent decree, DELCORA needed to dramatically scale its inspection program without proportional increases in cost or equipment. SewerAI made that possible.

The Challenge

DELCORA was consistently missing production targets for their consent decree with three CCTV crews. The data they did collect required heavy QC review due to accuracy issues, and processing a single inspection took approximately 45 minutes — a bottleneck that limited both volume and turnaround time.

The authority was evaluating adding new CCTV trucks to meet production goals, but the capital expense was a significant barrier. A new cleaning/TV unit represents a major investment — and adding headcount and equipment without first optimizing the existing workflow was not the right answer.

• Consistently missing consent decree production targets with 3 CCTV crews
• Heavy QC review burden due to data accuracy issues from manual field coding
• Processing time of ~45 minutes per inspection creating review backlogs
• Capital expense of new CCTV trucks under evaluation to meet production goals

The Solution

DELCORA gradually adopted SewerAI technology, starting with AutoCode. CCTV crews stopped coding in the field and let AutoCode handle condition assessment — immediately reducing the manual burden and improving consistency. Over time, DELCORA migrated fully to PIONEER with ESRI and CMMS integration (Trimble Unity / Cityworks), and added Sewer3D for MACP II manhole inspections.

• AutoCode deployed first: field crews stopped manual coding, AI handled condition assessment
• Full migration to PIONEER with ESRI and CMMS integration (Trimble Unity / Cityworks)
• Sewer3D added for MACP II manhole inspection

Results

88% Increase in Linear Feet Assessed

By eliminating the manual coding bottleneck, DELCORA nearly doubled its annual assessment output — from 160,000 to 300,000 linear feet — with the same three CCTV crews. The same team, equipped with better technology, could cover significantly more of DELCORA's 180-mile network in the same period.

38% Reduction in Cost Per Inspected Linear Foot

The efficiency gains from AutoCode translated directly into a 38% reduction in cost per inspected linear foot — a meaningful improvement for a public authority managing infrastructure costs on behalf of ratepayers.

Capital Expense Avoided — Fleet Reduced by One Truck

Rather than adding a new CCTV truck to meet production targets, DELCORA was able to avoid that capital expense entirely — and even reduce their fleet size by one truck. AI-powered productivity made the existing fleet more than sufficient to meet consent decree obligations.

45 Minutes to 20 Seconds

Processing time per inspection dropped from 45 minutes to just 20 seconds — a reduction of more than 99%. Observations per inspection doubled from 20 to 40, giving DELCORA a richer, more complete picture of infrastructure condition across the network.

In Their Own Words

“I was a former TV operator, and one of the things that always struck me was that different people see things differently — different operators, different opinions. Sometimes we do have issues with this. So, the streamlined ability to get the data and code in a consistent way, combined with the unlimited storage, it was huge. Once we got into the product, we realized how beneficial it could be to DELCORA, to our engineers, to our ratepayers.”

— James Cartafalsa, Collection System Manager/Information Officer, DELCORA

“Our system is old, so we needed to find better ways to pinpoint rehab and repair and problems and address them. NASSCO does tell you the structural integrity of a pipe, but doesn't give you the entire picture, so the ability to use AI to get that data and streamline the process is really important to us. Prior to anything SewerAI-related, we basically just took our NASSCO scores and just pushed pipes off to capital repairs down the road just based on the structural and O&M ratings of the pipes. Now, utilizing the Risk and Rehab tools, we're able to factor in the area, the location, the consequence of failure and who is impacted — and to be able to do that has been great.”

— James Cartafalsa, Collection System Manager/Information Officer, DELCORA

“Prior to having this, O&M was just on a time basis, and now we can pinpoint based on the data we have. We have 180 miles of pipe, so how do we decide which pipe gets repaired, when, and how — definitely with the repairs we do in house, is there stuff where we can wait 6 or 12 months? So, we're not constantly tying up crews doing repair work. It allows us to make better educated decisions, and allocate our resources properly.”

— James Cartafalsa, Collection System Manager/Information Officer, DELCORA