IMPLEMENTING RESEARCH INTO THE MANAGEMENT OF CRITICAL WATER MAINS

摘要

Many major urban water utilities in Australia have significant numbers of cast iron critical water mains (CWM) that have been installed a long time ago and are in a state of reaching the end of their designed service life. The pipes have been subjected to gradual but continuous deterioration. Rapid urbanisation adds demanding operating conditions on critical water mains, causing high stresses. These factors lead pipes to fail. When they do they often cause significant impacts in terms of maintaining service levels to customers, loss of firefighting supply, safety issues, transport disruption and other social costs, as well as significant financial and reputational implications. This has been a serious challenge to water utilities, mainly due to the limited resources available to renew or replace these pipelines.