Kansas City's Smart Sewer Program Selects Electro Scan for 22-Mile Sewer Condition Assessment Project

"We are delighted to work with the internationally-recognized Kansas City Smart Sewer program to use our machine-intelligent Focused Electrode Leak Location (FELL) instrumentation to automatically identify and measure sources of infiltration," states Chuck Hansen, Chairman, Electro Scan Inc.

Under the direction of Special Assistant City Manager, Andy Shively, PE, Kansas City's Smart Sewer program uses data and technology to implement innovative infrastructure solutions, currently estimated to help the city realize up to $1 billion in cost efficiencies. "The burden placed on Kansas City’s ratepayers is extraordinary," states Shively, "And careful selection of key technologies is a major factor to help us deploy our capital projects and ensure long-term environmental compliance."

Part of Kansas City’s data-centric approach includes investing in knowledge about its existing infrastructure. Under the Smart Sewer program, Kansas City has surveyed ninety-seven percent (97%) of its sewer mains using traditional Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras and manual coding of defects using visual inspection.

In contrast, the use of machine-intelligent FELL technology automatically pinpoints defect locations and measures sources of infiltration in gallons per minute to help assess and prioritize pipes for rehabilitation, eliminating human subjectivity and manual coding of defects.

FELL technology will be combined with Shively’s hydrogeology infiltration approach to ensure accuracy. Shively’s hydrogeology infiltration approach will utilize Innovyze^® InfoAsset Planner to overlay pipes with excessive Electro Scan defect flows with hydrogeological ‘at risk’ areas to strategically prioritize rehabilitation efforts.

By establishing a baseline leakage rate with Electro Scan technology, before rehabilitation, Kansas City's Smart Sewer program can estimate the percent reduction in infiltration immediately following repair, relining, or replacement capital projects.

"We look forward to Electro Scan delivering key intelligence on Kansas City's underground network," states Mark McIntire, President, McIntire Management Group, Electro Scan's exclusive representative in a 10-state territory. In 2010, the City of Kansas City, Mo. entered into a 25-year agreement with the EPA to reduce the volume and frequency of sanitary sewer overflows.

The City’s $4.5 billion consent decree is the largest infrastructure investment in the City’s 160-year history and is funded entirely through wastewater enterprise funds. In order to meet its obligation, the City has increased wastewater rates by 291 percent since the onset of the program. In order to mitigate the size of additional rate increases, the City’s Smart Sewer program seeks innovative and cost-effective ways to meet the regulatory mandates.

Much of Kansas City's Smart Sewer program success is attributed to Shively’s Capital Technology approach, a term he coined in 2017 that includes strategic and integrated application of technology to drive capital improvement priorities.

Prior to awarding this project, Kansas City's Smart Sewer program conducted extensive trials of the technology resulting in the purchase of its own Electro Scan equipment currently used for its ongoing Stream Crossing Program to assess pipelines located in environmentally-sensitive areas and in close proximity to rivers and streams.

In 2018, FELL technology was used by Kansas City to assess 30,000 linear feet (LF) of recently installed Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP) and is currently included in rehabilitation specifications to test and certify liners for watertightness, in accordance with ASTM F2550 standard.

All data for the Kansas City project will be processed and stored in Hansen Analytics' Critical Sewers^® cloud application, able to store Acoustic, CCTV, Dye Flood, FELL, Laser, Smoke Test, Sonar and CIPP Rehabilitation test results, linked to specific infrastructure asset.

 

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