Integrated Planning of Operational Maintenance Programs for Water and Gas Distribution Networks

Drinking water and natural gas are essential goods provided by municipal distribution networks. In order for there to be a reliable provision of such commodities, infrastructure managers must regularly dispatch vehicles to perform tasks such as valve and hydrant inspections and meter replacements. As public concerns about sustainability grow, managers must look for ways to reduce carbon emissions. This, however, should be done without jeopardizing service. One conceivable approach is to train staff to perform additional maintenance tasks so that combined work packages can be carried out. This would require resources to be spent in different areas, such as supplemental worker training and organizational restructuring of the utility. Infrastructure managers must thus weigh the expected efficiency gains against the associated costs. The infrastructure asset management process combined with digitalization are powerful tools to assess such questions. Unfortunately, digitalization in the infrastructure sector lags behind other sectors of the economy. To bridge this gap, real-world examples are needed to further spur adoption. This paper addresses this need with a methodology and case study for infrastructure managers of water and gas networks. Specifically, this paper presents a methodology to quantify the resource requirements of operational maintenance programs for a large municipality. As utilities plan maintenance routes differently, four algorithms are used to model the resource requirements of the status quo. The effect of prioritization as well as frequency of inspections/replacements is considered.