AWWA INF52176

The need to comply with provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act has compelled the water industry to spend millions of dollars on treatment system optimization, high-tech process control equipment, and public information programs. Too often, this has drained capital budgets to the point where little funding is left for maintenance or restoration of existing facilities. Water treatment plant managers are faced with balancing the need for regulatory compliance against the decay of the infrastructure needed to collect, treat, and deliver water to their customers. This paper presents the methodology implemented by the Philadelphia Water Department, under their Capital Facilities Assessment Program, to address these infrastructure concerns. A model was developed to assess the current condition of the infrastructure at the 140 million gallons per day Queen Lane Water Treatment Plant. A baseline condition evaluation was performed on key piping systems, major structural steel and concrete systems, concrete joints, and pipe support structures, to identify existing problems and determine remaining useful life. A framework was developed to: identify which infrastructure elements were to be rehabilitated or replaced; identify feasible, alternative repair/replacement solutions; create a weighted set of criteria against which to evaluate the various solutions; and perform initial and final alternative screenings to determine the most cost effective repair techniques. The model was tailored to achieve specific objectives with regard to cost, reliability and impact to plant operations. Includes figures.