WE&RF Releases ‘Asset Management of Force Main Infrastructure’ Report

The following is excerpted from the recently released report “Asset Management of Force Main Infrastructure” Synthesis Report published by the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF) and IWA Publishing and written by Sunil K. Sinha, Bhaskar Dasari and Berk Uslu of Virginia Tech. For more information or to access the full report, visit werf.org.

According to a 2004 WE&RF survey, 7.5 percent of wastewater collection system assets are force mains. Traditionally, most utilities have relied on a reactive approach to managing their force main assets. The primary reason for this approach is the difficulties associated with force main condition assessment, which requires the force main to be taken out of service for inspection — a major limitation. Moreover, providing bypass pumping during inspection is typically very expensive. The limited proven technologies available to determine pipe wall thickness and defects are part of the critical gaps associated with force mains inspection.