Cheap Ways to Collect Condition Data of Underground Infrastructure Assets

In this blog post, Ross and Heather continued answering the participant’s question on Things to Consider in Starting Infrastructure Condition Assessment.

Ross:

And particularly with the metal pipes, because you don’t tend to go cutting holes on them unless you need to – or any pipe.

But sometimes you’ll be putting in a hydrant or a valve or something like that – in a pipe that’s been on the ground for maybe a hundred years or 150 years.

And that just gives you the opportunity while you’re doing that work, to say to the guys, hey can you give me the bit that you’ve cut out?

Let’s have a look at what the internal walls looking like.

Have we got some buildup of material or anything like that or pitting or whatever it is that’s coming in your area?

And so it’s taking these opportunities I think – just natural opportunities as they come along without spending money.

Instead of specifically sampling for the condition, just to have a look at what’s happening and form an opinion about the overall or the condition from those samples.

Heather:

And I think the only time that we really see water utility is going great lengths to get condition assessment is with the risk is extremely high.

So if you have a pipeline that’s, like the main transmission into your system and it’s under a railroad track and it’s not encased in a pipe or something and the cost, the consequence of that rupturing would be so tremendous.

You could hire somebody who could come in and actually does a visual inspection on the inside of the pipe as well as collecting wall thickness data, that sort of the thing.

But it’s not necessary unless you have a very high-risk situation to really go to those extremes, especially if you’re a small utility.

A larger utility might do that, but a smaller utility, there’s probably more information than you need.

So you can start it simple and then look at the factors that seem to make the most difference for you and then really focus on those factors, later on, to keep it simpler and not get yourself overwhelmed.

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