Colorado Springs is the largest City in Colorado that is not located within proximity of a major source of supply. In fact, water supplies to Colorado Springs are as far away as 200 miles, stretching across seven counties before entering the terminal reservoirs above the City. The City relies on the transportation of large quantities of water to meet the need for uninterrupted water deliveries. Much of the City’s raw water infrastructure investments occurred in the 1870’s, 1920’s 1930’s, 1950’s and 1960’s. Recent expansion projects were constructed in 2002. As the City plans for the next major delivery expansion, maintaining current service levels for the raw water infrastructure continues to be a major challenge. Historically, the raw water system has not been systematically evaluated to identify and prioritize renewal and replacement projects. A lack of both available asset information and historical operation and maintenance data was a regular occurrence. In 2004, Colorado Springs Utilities initiated the Raw Water Infrastructure Improvement Program with the stated goal of developing a baseline condition assessment of all raw water delivery systems exclusively owned and operated by the Utility. Additionally, this project would set the framework for several service lines that are incorporating a utility wide Asset Management Program. To date, Colorado Springs Utilities has completed the third of a four phase project that incorporates Condition Assessment, Asset Mapping and Inventory, Risk Based Prioritization for Capital and Operation and Maintenance funding, and the development of processes and procedures to implement an Asset Based Management Program. With the Program as the backdrop, this paper will present the challenges, solutions implemented, processes and procedures developed to ensure continued progress toward a utility wide Asset Management Program, and lessons learned to provide insights for other utility owners that are tasked to do more with less.
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