A Phased, State of The Art Technology Based Approach to Assessing KC Water's Missouri Valley Tunnel

摘要

KC Water owns and operates the Missouri Valley Tunnel (MVT), a 90-inch diameter, 2.9-mile long tunnel constructed in the 1920's that transports treated drinking water from the Kansas City Water Purification Facility to downtown Kansas City, crossing under the Missouri River. KC Water executed an inspection and assessment of the MVT utilizing available state of the art technology deployed on a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) capable of spanning the entire tunnel including both the Downtake and Uptake shafts. The final inspection provided KC Water with a detailed understanding of this critical infrastructure by utilizing a combination of multi beam sonar and high definition video to assess the condition of the pipeline. The approach to executing this inspection comprised of three phases: a feasibility study, a preliminary inspection, and the full tunnel inspection. This approach was developed methodically by KC Water to ensure that operational constraints and safety considerations were addressed as well as to determine the most appropriate technologies to provide the highest level of condition assessment possible.