Looking in Hard to Reach Places—San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility Yard Piping Condition Assessments

The San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility (RWF) has 67,000 linear feet of wastewater process piping that carries raw sewage, liquids, and sludge between the various unit treatment process areas. Much of the process piping at the RWF has remained in service continuously over the years without interruption, with 70% being over 25 years old and greater than 10% over 50 years old. In June 2015, Black & Veatch collaborated with the city of San Jose to develop a risk-based framework that prioritized various process piping condition assessment work and developed guidelines for conducting the condition assessments. Since then, V&A Consulting Engineers has evaluated 25% of the wastewater process piping, obtaining visual and physical condition data to support Black & Veatch’s rehabilitation prioritization and design efforts. This paper will present: (1) benefits of adopted condition assessment protocols for prioritization and design, (2) benefits of a specific inspection approach for various pipe materials ranging in diameter up to 144 in., and (3) lessons learned from operational/shutdown conditions.