Johnson County Wastewater Collection System Asset Management Program - Lessons from Implementing a Comprehensive Asset Management Program

Johnson County Wastewater (JCW) owns and operates a collection system consisting of approximately 2,300 miles of gravity pipe, 40 miles of forcemains, and 60,000 manholes. As the Johnson County Wastewater (JCW) collection system and workforce continue to age, investments in maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, and knowledge transfer to sustain desired service levels and risk tolerances will continue to grow. Increasing investment needs, coupled with limited resources, has driven JCW to continuously improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery while continuing to execute day-to-day work functions. To meet this challenge, JCW and HDR staff collaborated in the development and execution of JCW's Collection System Asset Management Program (CAMP) Implementation Plan which establishes a clear, practical, and strategic path forward. JCW has executed its asset management program through this approach which identifies, prioritizes, coordinates, and schedules continuous improvement initiatives at a manageable pace that strives to balance staff availability and continuous improvement objectives. The Implementation Plan Road Map, reflecting progress from 2013 - 2022 is attached to this abstract. JCW's CAMP is a comprehensive, mature asset management program that encompasses all collection system assets. The program has been in place for nearly a decade, and offers many lessons to share with utilities developing their own programs. The efforts completed through this program have enabled JCW to forecast maintenance, condition assessment, and renewal investment needs with a high level of confidence, justify appropriate investment levels, focus limited resources, increase operational efficiency, and facilitate knowledge transfer. The asset management principles this program is built upon, and the lessons learned during the execution of this program are applicable to utilities of all sizes. This presentation will present the challenges, accomplishments, and lessons learned over the past decade throughout the development and implementation of this ongoing program. The presentation will discuss the development of the program, the utilities activities executed the program, key program initiatives, challenges, and key accomplishments. Program areas include the following: - Pipe inspection and renewal program - Pipe maintenance (cleaning) program - Manhole inspection, renewal, and I/I reduction program - Forcemain program - Low pressure sewer program - Fats, oil, and grease (FOG) inspection program - Stream crossing program The key program accomplishments to date include: - Assessment and documentation of current collection system inspection, maintenance, and renewal practices and development of opportunities for continued improvement. The end result was a multi-year implementation for the Collection System Asset Management Program. This plan is updated on an annual basis. - Development of risk-based condition assessment scores for every asset within the system for which inspection data was available. These were used to develop data driven 10-year CIP projections for system maintenance and renewal along with supporting justifications allowing JCW to increase their collection system funding allotment and redirect funds to higher return-on-investment expenditures. - Development and implementation of automated prioritization tools that apply JCW's business decision making logic to live inspection, maintenance, and asset data stored with JCW's Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) to make decisions and prioritize rehab/repair, inspection, and maintenance investments. These tools were initially developed for pipe renewal and maintenance. Similar automated tools have been developed to execute the structural rehabilitation and I/I reduction program for manholes. - A data driven update to JCW's preventive maintenance cleaning strategy focusing cleaning resources on cleaning pipes at the right time, allowing JCW to clean 'dirty' pipes more often, extend the life of pipes by cleaning 'clean' pipe less often. This allows JCW to clean less mileage each year, while focusing resources on areas where cleaning is needed most frequently. - Integration of JCW's wet weather management, basin planning, and I/I reduction strategies with the asset management program, for both pipes and manholes. - Renewal and operational needs forecasted through the program were incorporated into JCW's 25-year Integrated Plan for capital improvements. Implementation of the Collection System renewal and public sector I/I reduction strategies included in the plan are executed through the CAMP program, and completed in conjunction with wet weather program strategies. - Development of a Manhole Inspection and Renewal Program focused on both I/I reduction and structural renewal. - Implementation of a Forcemain Asset Management Program that addresses the challenges of managing forcemains that vary widely in age, material, and size - Implementation of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Plan to measure and document collection system program results, and automated generation of KPIs to regularly track collection system performance. - Implementation of a FOG program to utilize asset management principles to improve FOG management practices. - Development of a customer focused program to utilize technology to notify residents when excessive root growth is witnessed in privately owned service laterals. - Completion of a deterioration rate study of over 600 older VCP and concrete pipes within JCW's system. This study allowed JCW to better understand how quickly pipes within the system are deteriorating and refine long term investments projections in inspection and renewal of aging sewers.