York County, VA: Turning Video into Value
York County faces the pressure most utilities know well: aging pipes, limited rehabilitation dollars, and councils, ratepayers, and regulators who expect faster answers and defensible capital plans. Meeting those expectations depends on condition data the County could not easily get.
A manual coding bottleneck. The County relied on traditional CCTV inspections that produced thousands of feet of video each year. Every foot had to be watched and coded by hand, a process that was slow, labor-intensive, and prone to human error. Coding also varied between reviewers and contractors, which made results hard to compare across basins or years.
Findings stuck on the shelf. Results landed in static PDF reports and databases with limited access. On a 10-year inspection rotation, data that ages in a report before informing a decision is a costly delay. Defect identification and repair planning both lagged behind collection.
A GIS layer without condition data. The County's GIS sewer layer had no assessment data attached. Staff could see where pipes were, but not what shape they were in. That gap made investments hard to prioritize, raised operating costs, and increased the risk of failures such as pipe collapses and sewer backups.
A lean team with a full plate. The County's collection system staff already handle repairs, emergency response, preventative cleaning, lift station checks, and complaint and backup calls. There was little room to add hours of screen time on top of that work.
Objectives
York County sought a scalable solution that would make every foot of inspection footage useful, fast.
The County set out to:
Process up to 200,000 linear feet of sewer footage per year without adding staff
Accelerate review times so field teams and decision-makers get answers sooner
Improve data quality and reduce reviewer-to-reviewer bias with consistent PACP coding
Integrate condition data directly into GIS for proactive asset management
Increase confidence in defect identification and mitigation planning
Free staff from repetitive video review for higher-value work
The solution: AI does the watching, people make the calls
PipeAid replaced manual coding with AI-assisted coding that works inside York County's existing program. PipeAid applies machine learning and computer vision to automatically code sewer footage to NASSCO PACP standards, builds a Digital Twin of the sewer network, and delivers GIS-ready outputs for spatial visualization and data-driven decisions.
The workflow has four steps:
Footage in. The County's contractors capture standard CCTV video. No new field hardware is required.
AI first pass. Computer vision identifies defects and pins each one to its location along the pipe.
Human validation. PACP-certified reviewers confirm, correct, and finalize the coding.
Structured data out. Standardized defect data flows into GIS, asset management, and capital planning.
The model handles the repetitive watching; people handle the judgment. Because the AI applies the same criteria to every frame, coding stays consistent across contractors, crews, and years of collection.
Built to fit, not replace. York County kept its field workflow exactly as it was. The same contractors, CCTV trucks, and inspection standards stay in place, and PACP coding keeps new data compatible with historical records. PipeAid delivers data as a service that enhances the tools the County already runs, with GIS as the system of record.
How York County puts the data to work
York County uses PipeAid as one part of a deliberate condition-assessment process, not as a black box. The data tells staff where to look closer, and their own investigation decides what gets repaired.
Worst basins first. The County works through the system by selecting the basins expected to be in the poorest condition. Selection weighs staff knowledge of known issues, the age of each basin, and the pipe materials present.
Clearing the way for inspection. When the CCTV contractor finds severe root intrusion, County crews address it while the contractor is still onsite. If a camera cannot get through a mainline because of roots or another obstruction, the contractor calls the County to root-cut the line so the inspection can be completed. Fewer abandoned surveys means more complete data per basin.
Every inspection, reviewed two ways. PipeAid codes every inspection, and staff review those results alongside the CCTV contractor's summaries. Closest attention goes to the defects most likely to cause service interruptions, particularly collapsed or broken pipe.
Flag, verify, repair. A PipeAid finding starts an investigation rather than automatically triggering a repair:
Flag. PipeAid or the CCTV contractor identifies a concerning defect.
Verify. The County's own CCTV crew follows up to gather pipe depth, exact repair location, traffic-control needs, and other site conditions.
Repair. Mapping, photos, and video go to the repair crew so the work can be scheduled and completed efficiently.
From defects to a capital plan. Beyond individual repairs, the coded data helps the County rank projects, schedule repairs, plan rehabilitation work, and support long-range capital planning.
From static reports to a living map
The GIS sewer layer that once lacked condition data now carries it. York County built a GIS map that shows PipeAid inspection data alongside its other sewer assets, so every coded defect is tied to a real pipe instead of a page number in a PDF.
One map, many jobs. The same coded data answers different questions depending on how it is filtered. Staff use the map to see where defects are concentrated, compare conditions across basins, and prioritize follow-up inspections, repairs, and rehabilitation. Managers can see system-wide trends, while operators can drill down to the exact joint and observation.
A clearer case for funding. The map gives the County an accessible way to communicate sewer conditions to administrators, elected officials, and citizens. Instead of a binder of reports, leadership sees one picture of where the system needs investment and why.
Kept current. When inspections reveal differences between field conditions and existing records, the County updates its GIS maps. Each inspection cycle makes the digital twin more accurate.
Next up: locating laterals. This summer, a County intern GPS-located cleanouts throughout the system. The County plans to link PipeAid's lateral observations to those cleanout points to map actual lateral locations. Operations staff expect this to make laterals much easier to find during maintenance emergencies and utility locates.
Results so far
In its first stretch of the partnership, York County has turned inspection footage into decisions it trusts.
Accurate coding. PipeAid's coding has been accurate overall and has not led the County to schedule any repairs that were not warranted.
Repairs completed. Several repairs have already been completed based on findings from PipeAid and CCTV inspections.
Every inspection coded. All inspection footage is now coded to one PACP standard, regardless of which contractor or crew collected it.
Condition data in GIS. The County's sewer layer now carries assessment data, giving staff and leadership a shared view of system condition.
A foundation for capital planning. Coded data now feeds project ranking, repair scheduling, rehabilitation planning, and long-range capital decisions.
The County's main constraint today is not data, but crew capacity: limited staffing affects how quickly every identified need can be addressed. That makes prioritization even more important, and it is exactly where consistent, mapped condition data pays off.
What's next
Continue the basin-by-basin program toward the 10%-per-year inspection goal
Link PipeAid lateral observations to newly GPS-located cleanouts to map lateral locations system-wide
Use the growing condition dataset to target infiltration and inflow (I/I) by basin and plan FOG (fats, oils, and grease) cleaning routes around hot spots
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