Answering 5 Basic Asset Management Questions for Pre-Stressed Concrete Water Transport Mains

Waternet is the only Dutch water company that covers the complete water cycle and is responsible for the management of drinking water, wastewater, surface water, groundwater and safety behind dykes in Amsterdam and surroundings. Based on literature review of infrastructure asset management (AM) around the world the Drinking Water division of Waternet (DW) developed an AM framework existing of 5 basic questions, which should be answered to optimize the system of assets, its operation, maintenance and retrofitting. DW is trying to answer these questions for three pre-stressed concrete pipelines (PCPs). As the pipelines are part of a water treatment and transport system, the first step was to define the required long-term level of service for the whole system (question 1). The answers of the other questions focused mainly on the pipelines themselves. To assess the future performance of the infrastructure (question 2) a condition assessment program was implemented. Using different risk analyses, critical parts of the pipelines were highlighted (question 3) and alternative repair, replacement and monitoring techniques were identified (question 4). Based on the answers to the previous questions the best long-term investment, maintenance and monitoring program for the 3 pipelines was defined (question 5). The paper gives an overview of the techniques, methods and tools that were used and analyses that were carried out to answer the questions.