Innovative Approach to Master Planning — A Phased-based Asset Management Technique

Delta Diablo (District) provides wastewater conveyance and treatment to over 70,000 customer accounts. As operator & owner of the Resource Recovery Facility (RRF), the District regularly develops a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to address near-term needs such as existing infrastructure improvements while engaging in long-term planning to address challenges with aging infrastructure, increased vulnerability to climate change impacts, increasing regulatory requirements and increasing operating costs with limited funding. The Resource Recovery Facility Master Plan (RRFMP) is a strategic planning document providing an in-depth analysis in key areas to guide significant infrastructure investment decisions in the near & long-term. When planning for future infrastructure asset renewal it is important to understand the condition of the existing assets, but condition assessment activities are resource intensive, and a full condition assessment was beyond what the District had budgeted for development of a Master Plan. A focused condition assessment approach was developed to identify assets with high consequence of failure and nearing the end of their useful life for prioritizing assets for the field condition assessment. A list of critical above-ground assets with high PoF within the next 5 years and high CoF and that are not already in District's current CIP were selected for a visual condition assessment. Results of the condition assessment and staff input were used to customize the expected useful life (EUL) of each asset class and calculate the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of each asset. Customizing the EUL based on historical performance, provided a more realistic projection of rehabilitation and replacement (R&R) project timing. Risk along with RUL results were used to prioritize near-term R&R projects. Assets falling into the short-term R&R were bundled into capital improvement projects and a Business Case Evaluation (BCE) was conducted to prioritize near and long-term CIPs. Master Plans can often span 10-20 years and while there may be a high level of confidence in near-term CIP projects, the timing of longer-term projects are likely to change. For this reason, interest is growing in digital, interactive platforms with the ability to be constantly updated to help with communicating and updating the Master Plan. ESRI's Story Map platform was used to deliver a dynamic and interactive map which allowed the District to better communicate their CIP and facilitate stakeholder engagement. The Story Map can be easily embedded within a website and shared via social media. CIP Sheets that provide critical project details such as cost, expenditure and ranked priorities are also included in the Story Map. The presentation will discuss a risk-based, data-driven approach in developing a prioritized CIP and how innovative tools and technologies can assist in better communication of results with stakeholders to facilitate the decision-making process. Participants in this session will learn how a risk-based, data-driven approach to asset management can assist in developing a prioritized CIP and how innovative tools and technologies can improve communication of results with stakeholders to facilitate the decision making process.