Big Picture, Small Bites The City of Fort Wayne's Collection System Model Evolution over Eleven Years

For over eleven years the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has maintained a collection system model to facilitate Long Term Control Planning (LTCP), develop master plans and support as needed planning and growth concerns — the big picture items most utilities face. While the model has been an important resource for the City, it is not effortless to maintain. They have regularly incorporated system improvements and refined portions of the model with additional flow metering to support sewershed specific issues — the small bites. Based on the effectiveness of having a reliable tool to evaluate collection system issues, the City has migrated from utilizing the model to answer planning level questions to supporting their overall wet-weather program — the big pictures. The methods and criteria applied during the model evolution will be discussed, and important capital improvement projects involving the model will be described to demonstrate the benefits of model refinement.