The city of Montrose outsourced their valve exercising program to Wachs Water Services due to staffing limitations. In 2014 and 2015, Wachs assessed over 1,100 valves in Montrose's system. They found issues like valves being closed, frozen, or inaccessible due to debris or inaccurate maps. As a result of the program, the percentage of operable valves increased significantly. The program is helping Montrose prioritize repairs, have better information on their assets, respond more quickly to issues, and reduce costs from pipe failures. Montrose sees the value in continuing the valve exercising program through outsourcing to ensure their system remains operational and reliable.
Sparrows Point Country Club Irrigation System Evaluation
GJ Conference Valve Exercise FINAL - RH
1. David Bries – City of Montrose
Ramsey T. Hemaidan – Wachs Water Services
1
Renewing the Valve Exercising Program
in Montrose
2. Agenda
Background of Montrose Valve
Exercise Program
Why do a control program
Why outsource a control program
How it’s working for Montrose
Discussion
2
3. Background
• Montrose understood the value of a valve
exercise program and had invested in valve
exercise equipment.
• With staff limitations, valve exercise program
was getting bumped due to higher priority
tasks.
• Field crews were noticing problems isolating
line segments due to inoperable or
inaccessible valves.
3
4. Why do a control program?
Control…
KNOWING information on “on/off” assets
AND
KNOWING the usability of each “on/off” asset
4
So you can plan, respond and manage system
flows and reduce the cost of failures… faster
and impact fewer customers
5. Why do a control program?
Value of control
Assets
Information
Return on Investment
5
6. hydrant
valve
service
Asset usability consequences:
• Duration: damaging flow and
actions to control the situation – 3
valves vs. 7 valves
• Footprint: more customers
out of service – 3 services vs. 17
services
break
Why do a control program
8. Economic value of control is realized in both;
O&M budgets by reducing costs
Capital budgets by deferring investments
Plus the other two elements of the TBL
Environmental
Social
Control is a function of;
Asset usability
Information usability
The Value of Control
9. Can I find it?
What Constitutes Asset Usability?
Can I access it?
Can I fully close it?
Asset Usability
16. Return on Investment
16
With better assets and information, we can respond quicker and
more efficiently, reduce damages and water loss, save time and
protect more customers
17. 5 areas of savings that include
Collateral Damage (e.g. roads washed out,
private property claims etc.)
Labor and Equipment (shutdown, excavation,
repairs, etc.)
Outage Disruptions (direct societal costs,
bottled water for residents, hotel stays, etc.)
Traffic Disruption costs
Water Loss costs
Return on Investment
19. Valve Operability
19
Operability Definitions
Initial Operability: Upon arrival, can
the valve be located, accessed and
operated by the crew in ten minutes?
Current Operability: The valve
operability after all assessment and
repair work has been completed.
22. Why outsource a control program
Best practices
Variable staffing
Highest efficiency
Accountability
22
Utilities have a full time job operating aging systems and taking
care of customers. A control program is a foundation for the
utility, and insures that the utility can respond in the most
efficient and effective way, increase customer service, and save
money for ratepayers.
24. How it’s working for Montrose
Engaged Wachs Water Services in 2014 for
563 valves
Focus on Transmission mains and known critical valves
in the system
And continued in 2015 for an additional
566 valves
Focus on oldest part of the system
Plan to continue on this pace into the
future
It’s working!
24
42. 42
Description Total
Cannot Locate 22
Misaligned/Damaged Box 13
Op Nut Rounded/Missing 11
Paved Over/Need To Raise 9
Spins Free 2
TOTAL: 57
Unusable valves: 2015, for prioritization by
Montrose
43. How’s it going for Montrose
43
It’s getting done!
We know which valves work
We know data on our valves
We are prioritizing our repairs/replacements
We are reducing the cost of failures
This is an ongoing program
That is getting done, is documented with data
And, is delivering a return on the investment
44. 44
This is not the time to figure out if your valves
work!
Here’s an animation that illustrates the effect of unusable valves
If there was a main break, at this red “starburst” icon, the plan would be to close these three valves,
Let’s get to it….
Valve 1 closed
Valve closed
Everything is going well until I get to the last valve in the plan…. and I can’t find it… maybe its covered over in asphalt, but I don’t have time to pull out my metal detector and start searching so I move on….
Valve 4
Valve 5
Everything is going according to my “revised plan” until I get to what now is the 6th valve….. The roadway box is shifted and has moved off the center of the operating nut just enough that I can’t securely fit the valve key on securely…. I certainly don’t have time to dig down and realign the box and so once again, I back up….
And finally, by closing the seventh valve, I’m able to control the situation and turn the water off so the repair work can begin….
But by having to backup from what I thought was going to be 3 valves to 7, it took me twice as long
And now there are close to 20 customers out of service when there only should have been 3
And is this scenario, 5 of 7 control points were useable, which translates to just about 70% \– a good 10 points higher than the average
Here are just a few pictures to give a face to some of the things we spoke about….
Well we talked about increased duration (and therefore damage) related to main breaks… this can translate into damage to roads and other public infrastructure as we see here, or damage to private property as we see here
We talked about unintended outages and degraded water quality related to closed valves… this hydrant was opened in conjunction with the opening of a valve that had been closed for an unknown amount of time…. As you can see, the resultant dead-ends accumulated a significant amount of sediment
What we’re looking at here is a list compiled from a 2007 AWWA paper on the cost main breaks… and while the discussion of control is broader than main breaks, this is a good starting point when trying to understand the costs associated with a lack of control
We aren't going to go into each of these but as you can see, the list includes things you might expect
Like labor – for both internal and external resources
Collateral damage to parallel utilities
Lost revenue – the meters aren't spinning when there’s no water
And many, many others…
So how can we achieve increases in control and how is the value realized?
What makes a valve useable?
If there answer to any of these questions is “no” it isn't useable
On average, where there isn't a proactive control point management strategy in place, about 40% of valves are unusable….
When people think about valves that don’t work, they typically jump to the valves that are corroded and broken – valves that have endured the mechanical effects of aging
And while these mechanical challenges exist, statistically speaking, they are dwarfed by accessibility problems
If someone needed to access this valve, they would most likely need a jackhammer to punch through this concrete curb…. and if they didn’t have the means to break through the curb, this just isn’t useable…
and in many instances valves simply end up “lost”….
They’re on the maps, they just can’t be readily found in the field – they may be poorly mapped, they may have been removed or they may have never been installed -- this is typically one of the biggest usability challenges we see
And here’s a few statistics we put together for an AWWA poster a couple of years ago that summarized the findings from hundreds of thousands of valve inspections from across the country – the good news is that improvements can be achieved (which in turn reduces risk) very cost effectively
But there’s another chapter when we’re talking about achieving sustainable control…. Information Usability
These are the questions you need to ask yourself when evaluating how usable your information is an what the opportunities are for improvement
Here’s an example where the mapping is significantly challenged…. And how information usability ties back to asset usability..
The valve is mapped here <click>
But found here <click>
190 ft away
If you’re going by the map to find this valve, you’re probably not going to find it without considerable time/effort
Content (how deep valve is, type of valve. Take 50-75 attributes of data. Little bio of assett.
It’s important to have relevant and meaningful information at the right time in one place….
Business systems should be capable of seamlessly answering pressing questions like: <click>
When was it evaluated last? <click>
Does it work? <click>
Is it open? <click> -
How many turns does it require to fully close it? <click>
How much torque does it require to close and how deep is it --- what tools will I need? <click>
These are typical operational questions but if valve is being tracked as closed in GIS or in the asset management system, the hydraulic model should have access to the information as well
75% of valve jobs is Simple valve program, just document valve (GPS valve, doe it work or not)…there is value in knowing and move on or we can do repairs if needed. (giving valve up to grade).