Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for smart wet infrastructure, recently announced that the City of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, United States of America (U.S.A.) has adopted their industry-leading and award-winning InfoMaster software for prioritising the operations and maintenance activities of its sewer collection system.
With a population exceeding 40,000, the City of Fitchburg is located in Worcester County, west of Boston, Massachusetts. The City’s Wastewater Division is responsible for the operation and maintenance of over 220 miles (354 kilometres) of sewer lines that make up the collection system. The decision to adopt the InfoMaster software will help the City leverage on its investment in both Innovyze InfoSWMM wastewater network simulation technology as well as Esri ArcGIS technology by enhancing them with sophisticated modelling analytics designed to help optimise its system’s capital planning and renewal, emphasising the economic and financial aspects of asset management.
“InfoMaster gives us a powerful risk-based asset management solution that will enable us to optimise the capital improvement strategy for replacing our sewer mains by leveraging our existing GIS and CMMS solutions, InfoSWMM hydraulic model output data, and CCTV and sewer cleaning data,” Jeffrey A. Murawski, Fitchburg DPW Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater, said. “It also gives us the critical information we need to prioritise our capital planning expenditures with an eye to solving our most critical sewer infrastructure challenges, improving system performance, meeting regulatory compliance, and best serving our customers.”
All over the world, aging wastewater infrastructures are rapidly deteriorating and sometimes failing – with potentially dire human, environmental and financial consequences. As this aging process continues, the need for effective risk-based asset integrity management becomes more pressing. Maintaining infrastructure assets in a fit-for-purpose condition throughout their target lifespans is a primary goal for utilities worldwide, and selecting the right pipes for rehabilitation at the right time is one of the main challenges of asset management. An understanding of when and how pipes will fail, along with a quantitative grasp of the underlying causal factors likely to induce failure, are essential in formulating a targeted approach to rehabilitation, repair and renewal planning.
Certified by NASSCO PACP, MACP and LACP, InfoMaster is the leading software choice for utilities faced with optimising their sewer infrastructures and eliminating unwanted overflows. It can accurately estimate both the likelihood and consequence of failure for each individual sewer main in the network, as well as the amount and time of occurrence of future failures. This critical information facilitates a proactive approach to identifying and managing these high-risk assets to help preserve structural integrity and keep the network operating well into the future. It also eliminates reactive maintenance that waits for pipe failures to occur before repairing them.
InfoMaster comprehensive GIS-centric risk-based asset integrity modelling techniques provides reliable pipe failure predictions, even for limited failure records and application to different pipe materials. They include the non-homogeneous Markov Chain (NHMC), non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP), Linear Extended Yule Process (LEYP), Cox proportional hazards model, and advanced time-based probabilistic Weibull and Herz models.
These techniques can be effectively used to evaluate a variety of pipe characteristics related to failure, and can consider all pipes in the sewer network, not just those with breaks or other failures. Armed with these powerful models, utilities can now accurately assess the aging processes of their network pipes and estimate their lifetimes and structural/functional failure potential and distribution over time. Such capabilities can greatly assist utilities in assessing their pipes’ propensity to fail, identifying critical ones, and prioritising their inspection and determining rehabilitation requirements. This proactive “fix before break” approach can help utilities extend the useful life of their assets and improve their performance at maximum savings.
The InfoMaster product suite can import hydraulic modeling data and facilitate significantly better planning and control by giving utilities critical insight into all enterprise assets, their conditions, aging and work processes. Additionally, it is also directly integrated with Cityworks, Cartegraph, infraMAP, and Lucity), and can interface with other leading maintenance management software (CMMS). InfoMaster enables utilities to use information and analytics in new ways to drive higher productivity and quality while managing costs and increasing operational flexibility.
The program’s intuitive interface and easy-to-use functionality can save utilities considerable resources. With minimal effort, users can quickly pinpoint assets at the greatest risk of hydraulic and water quality deficiencies or structural failure, identify the best possible improvement alternatives for optimal system performance, prioritise improvements based on available budget, and realise significant cost savings.
The software also serves as a base platform for advanced asset management extensions including InfoMaster LCCA (Life Cycle Cost Analysis). InfoMaster LCCA lets utilities conduct a wide-ranging risk-based economic life-cycle cost analysis to determine the optimal replacement date for each pipe in the network. This enables users to ensure the smartest distribution of dollars spent on replacement and repair of their assets. It also helps them create reliable, cost-effective, risk-based capital improvement plans that enhance operational efficiency and quality of service and keep assets performing at peak condition while making the most of limited budgets.
“Strong asset performance modelling and capital planning capabilities are critical components of a smart enterprise asset management strategy,” Colby T. Manwaring, Chief Executive Officer of Innovyze, said. “InfoMaster delivers detailed, accurate analyses and comprehensive custom reports that help utility and public works managers make better, more informed decisions on when to repair, replace, or rehabilitate their critical sewer network assets; eliminate potential overflows; and optimise efficiency, maintenance and hydraulic performance. It also supports them in developing reliable long-term funding strategies for such projects. These advantages help utilities ensure the ongoing sustainability and resiliency of their infrastructures and their ability to deliver the required level of service at the lowest cost. Innovyze is proud to be a part of the City of Fitchburg’s success.”
