Advanced Asset Management for Force Main and Gravity Pipe Infrastructure Systems

Models and tools help asset managers for advanced asset management by helping answer crucial questions such as; where, when, and why the resources should be used to keep the infrastructure at the desired performance levels. This research provides infrastructure asset managers a suite of models and tools for long-term advanced decision support for gravity and force main pipes called the remaining economic life analysis (RELAY) tool. This tool consists of data standards for the pertinent data related to pipe performance. These data standards are used to assess the performance of the pipes at a ten-grade scale to predict the likelihood of failure at the time of inspection. The performance index grades are then used for state and time-dependent prediction models to determine the future deterioration of the pipes for proactive asset management decision support. Currently, thirty-five utilities nationwide have been participating this research. The piloting efforts have been conducted for the suite of models and tools with the help of these utilities. The RELAY tool is integrated with the National Infrastructure Database called PIPEiD for long-term data collection and dissemination. This integration forms the methodology and proof of concept for the aforementioned national database.