Developing a Successful Wastewater Collection System Rehabilitation Program in Corpus Christi, Texas

The City of Corpus Christi, 8^th largest city in Texas, is a booming, coastal city in south Texas that relies heavily on both tourism and the oil and petrochemical industry as the main engines driving growth and redevelopment. As a result, the need to make substantial improvement to the aging sanitary sewer infrastructure, which is constructed primarily of vitrified clay pipe lines that have been in service for more than 50 years, has increased. The City's wastewater collection system taxed by the development has experienced significant amounts of infiltration and inflow (I/I), debris deposits, collapsed lines, and cave-ins. To address the growing demands on the infrastructure and provide the ability to quickly mobilize to an emergency type repair, the City has established a program of implementing various indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts for wastewater system rehabilitation. This paper will discuss the process the City of Corpus Christi went through to implement the rehabilitation program and outline its results, rehabilitation procedures for pipe lines, and lessons learned. This paper provides details on the evaluation and prioritization for project selection, the development of specific projects, experiences with projects constructed, and the implications of the rehabilitation program in terms of reduction in sanitary sewer overflows and cost savings for emergency repairs.