Arlington Water Utilities Strengthens Infrastructure Using Technology
By Traci Peterson
Posted on May 17, 2017, May 17, 2017

Infrastructure

Arlington Water Utilities is joining leaders across the U.S. this week to raise awareness about the need for investing in critical infrastructure as part of National Infrastructure Week 2017.

The national campaign is organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other leading business and civic organizations. It highlights the economic importance of healthy infrastructure such as roads, bridges, rail, ports, airports, water and sewer systems and the energy grid.

Aging water and wastewater infrastructure is one of the most pressing challenges facing the country. In 2016, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimated that the U.S. needed to invest $82 billion more each year in water infrastructure to meet future needs.

The Arlington City Council recently approved an $84.4 million in capital project investments by Arlington Water. Planned projects for the next year include about $21 million for water and sewer main replacements and about $40 million to update and extend the life of water treatment equipment. Arlington Water continues to seek out innovative ways to save Arlington residents money by embracing technology and performing services in-house. A couple of recent examples include:

  • Arlington Water's engineering and operations divisions recently participated in a demonstration of pipe-bursting equipment from a California company called TRIC Tools with the help of Greg Scoby, of Crossbore Consultants in Los Gatos, Calif. Pipe-bursting is a trenchless method of replacing aging water mains. A new pipe is pulled through the existing main, fracturing the old pipe along the way. During the demonstration, Arlington Water crews, TRIC personnel and Scoby replaced 850 feet of hard to access, breakage prone water main in southwest Arlington. The pilot project was completed in only two days and saved residents more than $125,000, when compared to traditional open cut methods. In addition, Arlington Water crews gained valuable experience for future pipe-bursting projects.
  • Arlington Water is more than three-quarters of the way to a goal of assessing 120,000 feet of wastewater main this year as part of the Large Diameter Sanitary Sewer Assessment Project, a partnership with the University of Texas at Arlington. The project uses the MSI HD Profiler - a multi-sensor robot that gathers information from inside the sanitary sewer main using a high definition camera, lasers and sonar. The data helps UT Arlington and Arlington Water pinpoint areas of main for further structural evaluation, repair or possible replacement. The partnership will save millions of dollars that may have been spent on emergency repairs or needlessly replacing pipe with many years of remaining service life. It was recently part of an article in Opflow, the national magazine of the American Water Works Association, and was named a Game Changer by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

For more information about National Infrastructure Week, visit http://infrastructureweek.org/.

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