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lifting gulley grates.
Wardsflex, anotherwell-known name in the drainage supplies sector is another company that offers both gulley grabs and stone pickers and gully hooks,which it says are one of the simplest andmost effective tools for removing debris and obstructions fromwithin gullies. The tools are suited applications onmanholes, rainwater gullies and drains, septic tanks and many other chamberswith restricted access or confined spaces. Their designmakes them simple and clean to use and they are available with various handle lengths (1 to 2.5m) and with either round (88 to 238mmdiameter) or square bowls (dimensions 150mmto 238mm square). The company’s stone pickers come in 1 to 2.5mlengths and the Grab-All tool come with a 30 ft (9m) length of rope.
BRINGINGTECHNOLOGY INTOPLAY
to carry and quick to deploy, the Drain Buddy sorts those occasional difficult gratings that can easily disrupt production schedules and which aremost likely to pose an injury risk to the operatives opening the gullies.
Once into the gully of course it is not always simply a case of apply the gully cleaning vehicle’s boomand suction hose and clear or out the detritus. There are often occasions that require a bit ofmanualwork first to loosen sometimes age-oldwastewithin the gully that cannot be shifted either by the suction air movement or sufficiently by any high pressure jet thatmay be applied. At this point the use of somemanual implementsmay be required.
Aswell and offering gully cleaning vehicles GK&N also provides awide range of gully cleaning tools. The range includes items such as 1 to 2.5mlong gully grabswhich comewith a variety of cup heads depending on the type ofwaste that is being accessed/moved. Heads range fromsmall diameter round heads of 3 in to 9½in (75mmto 238mm) to square heads in dimensions from6 in to 9½in (150mmto 238 mm). The company also offers a range of gully lifting hooks for standard and heavy dutywork.
Similarly, UTS Ltd, the Ireland based distributor forWiedemann tankers and jet/vac units, also offers a range of gully tools. In this instance the gully grabs are available in both round and square bowl formatwith the round bowls available in 1mand 1.5mlengths at bowl diameters from88 to 130mmandwith square bowls available in 1.5mlengths at bowl dimensions of 150mmand 200mm. The company also offers a gully hook for gully grill liftingwhich is a heavy duty hookwith a square 140mmhandle and a 100mmsquare hook for
Software has also been developed that enables authorities and thosewith responsibility for drainage systems and gullies tomonitor and plan cleaning programmes
etc.One such software package comes fromMap16. TheMapp16 Asset Management tool offers a digital solution for drainagemapping andmanagement. The software is designed asmore than just a gully maintenance system. The technology is capable of collecting all drainage assets and inspection data, including routine cleansing of gullies, catch- pits, soakaways,weir kerbs, grips, cattle grids and muchmore. The innovative newway of collecting data, allows a one-time setup that enables constantworkingwith no need of creating separatework packages. Set custommap visualisations such as parked car revisits to enable teams to get key information live in the field. As a result, thework load is dramatically reduced and may even remove the need for any office interaction throughout the yearly gully maintenance process.
The systemallows operators to viewassets, live inspections and historic data aswell as query, export and createmaps. It can be utilised as a tool for resolution of service queries and can increase revenues by building a smarter operation including automated creation of digital tipping logs and geospatial tracking of tipping locations with year on year
data.Management can followa team’s progress day by day. Viewthe current status against KPI’s and track live daily outputs. It canmonitor efficiencies and create bespoke reportswith a touch of a button. A user friendly map interface shows live updates of current maintenance activities.
Sowhere does this leave the gully cleaning sector? Aswithmost sectors of the drainage equipment supply industry there is once again a wide variety of tankers and equipment for contractors and authorities to choose fromwhen
12 drain TRADER | October 2020 |
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it comes to gully cleaning. Fromgrill lifting hooks to hi-spec tankers the selection rules of course remain the same: Does the item(large or small) do the job forwhich it is intended, if yes put it on thewish-list, if not ignore it. Is the itemlikely to prove cost effective over its lifetime, if yes put it on thewish-list, if not ignore it. Is it easy andmore importantly safe to use, if yes put it on thewish- list, if not ignore it.
But, overriding all of thiswemust once again remember that nomatter howsimple or complex an itemof equipmentmay be there is and always will be the need to ensure that the person using it is trained up fully on all aspect of its use, even down to using a gully hook to open a grill safely. Without this training the potential for a dangerous situation arising is high if not very high, particularlywith gully cleaning,which is more or less all competed at the often busy roadside.
Asmentioned previously the operation of gully cleaning crews has changed significantly over the years (I should knowI amold enough to have watchedmost of the changes happening!). It is nowmuchmore than a simple open, clean, shut operation, so the level of skill and training that has to be applied coversmuchmore than the cleaning job itself. This includesmachine operation and control, heavy lifting awareness and traffic control aswell as cleanliness of the operation and personal, colleague and road-user safetywhich is nowverymuch part of the
process.Much of this has not been covered in any detail here butmust be kept inmind by all those thatwork andmanage this sector of the industry.
THANKS TOEVERYONEWHO
CONTRIBUTEDINFORMATION FOR THISMAINFEATURE
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