Development of an integrated software tool for whole of life management of concrete storm water pipe assets.

Abstract

In Australia, there are 500 local councils, each managing 300-1000 km of storm water drainage systems. Majority of the storm water pipes are concrete and are built in 1960’s. Currently the councils use CCTV inspections to assess around 10% of the network and make maintenance decisions for the whole asset stock. This creates a major challenge for asset managers since the decisions are made based on assumed levels of deterioration. Catastrophic failure of pipes due to inefficient management will lead to flooding, which can be a major hazard to the community and infrastructure. The paper presents the outcomes of a study conducted to assess the whole of life performance of concrete storm water pipes. Data from CCTV inspections are converted to a discrete rating and are used to derive Markov chain based deterioration models for the network. Based on these, optimized inspection strategy is developed for the pipe assets combined with a life cycle costing module, tree root invasion model and hydraulic and structural failure modules. The proposed integrated management model is suitable for capturing the whole of life performance of any infrastructure asset