Gathering Data and Applying Appropriate Technology: The Keys to Cost-Effective Sewer Rehabilitation

Today's buried wastewater infrastructure continues to be of significant concern to many cities and wastewater utilities. The possibility of a catastrophic sewer collapse propels many utilities to pursue aggressive and complete rehabilitation of sewers. However, is the cost for this complete rehabilitation always justified?This paper presents a methodical approach to implement a successful and cost effective rehabilitation program using a two-step approach, which is to (1) gather good data about the condition of the pipe, and (2) apply the appropriate technology for the rehabilitation. The paper will focus on the use of non-destructive condition assessment with proven and cutting edge technology for large diameter sewer pipe, to provide critical guidance for the proposed rehabilitation. Therefore, design of the rehabilitation is based on the known condition of the pipe so money is not spent to rehabilitate pipe that is still in good condition. This approach will extend the available funding to allow utilities to fix larger portions of the system by only repairing what is needed with the appropriate technology.The simple statement that “out of site, therefore out of mind”, can no-longer apply to buried municipal utility infrastructure. Utilities need to take a proactive approach to determine the condition of buried infrastructure. Proper condition assessment of buried pipe systems, utilizing a variety of assessment technologies will lead to better planning, scheduling and budgeting of when repairs and rehabilitation need to occur. This will also allow for a thought-out and correctly-designed approach of which repair technology is best to use. This will lead to cost effective budgeting and spending of available funds