The members of Clearwater town council approved spending up to $12,000 to purchase a new confined entry davit arm system for the public works department during their Aug. 20 meeting.
The District has many confined spaces that need to be entered on a regular basis, public works superintendent Jared Brounstein said in a report to council.
These include sanitary sewer pump stations, pressure reducing stations as well as an array of manholes.
The department presently uses a tripod system, Brounstein said. However, the winch has failed and it is presently out of service.
That means the department must rent equipment from Kamloops to do any confined space entries. This can create difficulties if work must be done after hours, on weekends or in emergency situations.
The tripod system is WorkSafe BC compliant but has limited lifting capacity. That means it cannot be used for tasks such as sanitary pump retrieval, equipment lifting and fall arrest.