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National guide to sustainable municipal infrastructure
National guide to sustainable municipal infrastructure
Boudreau, S.
NRCC-48198
A version of this document is published in / Une version de ce document se trouve dans :
NO-DIG 2005, Orlando, Florida, April 26, 2005, pp. 1-15
North American Society for Trenchless Technology (NASTT)
NO-DIG 2005
Orlando, Florida April 24-27, 2005
National Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure
Sylvain Boudreau11 National Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada
ABSTRACT: The National Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure: Innovations and Best Practices (InfraGuide) is a project funded under the Infrastructure Canada Program and implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the National Research Council (NRC). Its mission statement is clear – to identify and disseminate best practices and encourage innovation to support sustainable municipal infrastructure decisions and actions in order to protect and enhance the quality of life of Canadians. Beyond best practices, it is also the focal point for the pan-Canadian network of practitioners, researchers and municipal governments focused on infrastructure operations and maintenance. The project contributes to the ongoing demands for knowledge on infrastructure renewal by Canada's municipalities. It provides a network and mechanism to share current best practices and innovations in infrastructure development so that infrastructure renewal can take advantage of the best available knowledge and technology. The InfraGuide represents the needs of municipalities across Canada. It has been developed through extensive consultations with a vast network of stakeholders that continue to be involved in the InfraGuide development. The InfraGuide is accessible; it is written in clear language and brings proven methodologies and technologies to the diversity of communities across Canada, including rural and remote communities. The paper presents an overview of the InfraGuide project, and some of its successes to date. Finally, it identifies specific Best Practices that address the issue of asset management and trenchless technologies.
1. INTRODUCTION
Currently, Canadian municipalities spend $12-15 billion annually on infrastructure and 80% of the infrastructure investment is aimed at system repair, renewal and operation. In fact, 59% of the infrastructure is more than 50 years old while 30 % is more than 80 years old. In light of these facts, this investment is not only insufficient to meet municipal infrastructure needs, it is unsustainable over the long term. The rapid expansion of new technology and innovations in infrastructure, place additional pressures on municipalities, where implementing cutting edge solutions must be balanced with the need to repair and maintain existing systems. Municipalities are thus faced with a growing concern regarding how to finance infrastructure maintenance, repairs and replacement while remaining open to innovations and technology.
Concerns around financing municipal infrastructure go hand in hand with concerns regarding its development. The development of infrastructure across the country has been characterized by methods that are not always efficient, poor decision making processes and practices that vary greatly locally and regionally. These variations and inconsistencies limit the capacity of municipalities to create and maintain safe and healthy communities and environments.
New funding initiatives have been launched to respond to the magnitude of the infrastructure renewal problem. These initiatives require innovations, strong networks for information dissemination and new technical knowledge. The opportunities and challenges facing Canadian cities raise important questions. For example, what tools exist to help municipal governments meet their immediate and growing responsibilities? How can Canadian cities ensure that they are meeting the needs of the citizenry efficiently and effectively? Can strategic, targeted investments leverage existing resources that will in turn help develop sustainable communities?
In short, municipalities in Canada need a tool that will help them in setting priorities among infrastructure projects and that will provide them with access to best practices while respecting the environment and minimizing the social costs of service disruptions.
1.1 InfraGuide:
Innovations and Best Practices
With the intention of attending to these challenges and opportunities the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the National Research Council (NRC)i have joined to deliver the National Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure: Innovations and Best Practices (InfraGuide). InfraGuideii, funded by the Infrastructure Canada program, NRC, and through in-kind contributions from public and private municipal infrastructure stakeholders, develops decision-making and investment planning tools as well as technical best practices. Once complete, it will provide a road map to the best available solutions for addressing infrastructure issues. It is also rapidly becoming the focal point for the pan-Canadian network of practitioners, researchers and municipal governments focused on infrastructure operations and maintenance.
InfraGuide consolidates the vast body of existing knowledge and shapes it into best practices that can be used by decision-makers and technical personnel in the public and private sectors. It also provides instruments for municipalities to build the essential capacity required to identify needs, evaluate solutions, and plan long-term strategies to improve infrastructure performance at the best available cost. InfraGuide’s target areas include: 1) Decision-Making and Investment Planning; 2) Potable Water; 3) Storm and Wastewater; 4) Municipal Roads and Sidewalks; 5) Environmental Protocols; and 6) Transit, currently in development. Each target area encompasses several published Best Practices totaling 37 (Table 1) at present with 14 others in development (Table 2).
1.2 InfraGuide:
Format
InfraGuide best practices address both decision-making and technical issues. These documents are intended for use by municipal elected officials, decision makers, and non-technical personnel. Specifically, the tool aids in assessing their needs while helping technical staff, as well as elected officials, manage their infrastructure assets more effectively. All of this is to be accomplished through reliance on best practices in the selection, development and implementation of infrastructure projects. This tool also facilitates a process that includes ongoing monitoring, evaluation and feedback.
The various sets of technical modules provide municipal infrastructure practitioners with best practices from the choice of best available technologies and methodologies.
Best practices will connect with the end user, minimize overall life cycle investment, protect public health and the environment and provide practical advice to improve technical understanding and decision-making. The technical best practices will comprise the majority of the completed InfraGuide.
1.3
InfraGuide: Beyond Best Practices – Connecting People
Canadian cities are incredibly diverse. The municipal infrastructure sector in Canada is equally varied; it encompasses diverse environments and stakeholders from different sectors, who approach infrastructure issues with their own perspective. One recent study (Curry et al 2002) identified over 500 federal/provincial and territorial contacts and in excess of 300 references to Acts and Regulations with regards to infrastructure issues in Canada.
Shrinking resources, the complexity of public issues, the increasing prevalence of information communication technologies (ICTs) and the interdependence of stakeholders have been driving forces in the search for strategies and tools that focus on partnership and collaboration as a way of working. One response to these forces has been the emergence of new models, such as the network. Driven by a sense of urgency (the need to deal with existing problems) and a sense of frustration (with previously tried and failed solutions), organizations are experimenting with forms and structures that focus on implementing mechanisms that promote collaboration through communication, transparency and decentralization. The intended result is an organization that is flexible and nimble, responsive to the environment and able to act and engage others to join its venture (Ambire SI, 2003).
InfraGuide is quickly becoming one such tool, going beyond best practices and connecting to and across infrastructure networks. Recognizing that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, InfraGuide is positioning itself as the focal point for the pan-Canadian network of individuals involved in municipal infrastructure issues. InfraGuide, through its Directorate, (made up of approximately 15 technical and administrative staff) supports the work of all committees and working groups and manages all aspects of service delivery. It has established collaboration mechanisms that coalesce the efforts of a large number of volunteers, using a bottom up approach. Through its structures and processes, InfraGuide has developed a formula that resonates with stakeholders as evidenced by the number of volunteers (over 300 in 2004) that continue to be associated with this project. A Governing Council made up of individuals that represent municipal elected officials, practitioners, academia, consulting engineers and professional associations have broad based knowledge of, and participate in, municipal infrastructure related matters oversees the work of the Project Directorate.
As InfraGuide moves into the future, efforts will focus on achieving the InfraGuide ‘network advantage’ and translating that advantage into concrete activities. For example, achieving the network advantage requires that a communication infrastructure and protocols be developed and put in place to take advantage of electronic workspace opportunities that support the joint work of network members. Other components of the network advantage include joint value creation (developing new insights through the interaction of different perspectives and approaches), linking to broader policy processes to influence the national sustainable municipal infrastructure agenda and capacity building within and across the network. Realizing the various components of the network advantage will result in greater synergy across the municipal infrastructure sector and a concerted response to infrastructure issues in Canada as we begin to tackle the infrastructure deficit
1.4
InfraGuide: Successes and Strategic Imperatives
As InfraGuide enters its third two-year phase, it is appropriate to reflect on successes and challenges that have marked its existence thus far. InfraGuide has an organizational and operational infrastructure firmly in place; its bottom-up approach is proving to be an effective strategy to engage stakeholders from the infrastructure community and to ensure that InfraGuide reflects the existing knowledge and experience of practitioners. The development of best practices uses a process that is recognized among standards writing organizations and is grounded in a priority setting framework. The development of sustainable municipal infrastructure principles is yet another tool at the disposal municipalities for use in their decision making process. Most of all, InfraGuide is seen as an important initiative, a roadmap to the best available solutions to municipal infrastructure issues. In the four years that InfraGuide has been promoting its best practices, over 45 cities, both urban and rural and 10 national associations have endorsed InfraGuide and committed to utilize its practices as appropriate in their day-to-day decision making. .
InfraGuide is also faced with a number of challenges. Over the coming months, these strategic imperatives will continue to shape the work of the InfraGuide Governing Council. These include developing a sustainable financial model that incorporates the complexity of operations and management while retaining the flexibility to respond to stakeholder interests; ensuring InfraGuide connects with
stakeholder networks; ensuring InfraGuide delivers on its vision without attempting to be all things to all people; and, ensuring InfraGuide delivers evidence-based 'best practices' without sacrificing innovation. The greatest challenge to InfraGuide undoubtedly lies in making sure that its best practices remain tools that are both useful to municipalities across Canada and continue to contribute to shaping a national response to infrastructure needs at the local level.
2. Best Practices and Trenchless Technology
Canada’s need to address asset management using trenchless technologies was met by InfraGuide when it produced a best practice for potable water and a best practice for sewer and wastewater in regards to infrastructure deterioration. The following profiles these best practices:
PW 3 Selection of Technologies for the Rehabilitation or Replacement of Sections of a Water Distribution System
Rationale
The operation, maintenance and management of water distribution systems can be a complex process that typically accounts for between 50 and 80 percent of expenses incurred in the overall operation of a potable water system. A large and ongoing component of these expenses involves rehabilitating or replacing existing water mains to meet a community’s needs. The findings of a 2001–2002 scan of municipalities across Canada confirmed the need for a best practice on how to select appropriate technologies for the rehabilitation or replacement of sections of a water distribution system. Having up-to-date knowledge of the technologies available to repair or replace sections of systems helps municipalities to minimize life cycle costs while improving system reliability and customer service.
Description
This best practice focuses on the selection of available technologies for the replacement or rehabilitation of water mains and associated appurtenances. It provides municipalities with a method for selecting the appropriate technology based on social, economic and environmental factors and on current proven best practices in the industry. The process outlined assumes the municipality has already determined that a section of water main requires remedial action. Highlights from this best practice include:
1. A section outlining the need to understand the water distribution system from the perspective of: operations and maintenance practices, regulatory requirements, subsurface investigations, financial issues and community issues.
2. A description of each technology followed by a listing of benefits and drawbacks.
3. A flow diagram that identifies the problems, addresses the possible causes of the problem and provides two options (full replacement/structural rehabilitation or non-structural/semi-structural rehabilitation).
4. A table listing limitations of each technology. 5. Three case studies.
Benefits
By following the steps in this best practice, a municipality can feel confident that it has considered all economic, social, environmental and local issues in choosing a technology to rehabilitate or replace water mains in need of repair.
In addition to a best practice to address the needs in the potable water sector, InfraGuide has developed a best practice to address similar needs for sewer rehabilitation and replacement.
SWW 1 Selection of Technologies for Sewer Rehabilitation and Replacement Rationale
Maintenance of buried infrastructure like typical storm and wastewater collection systems can be difficult. Collection systems can account for up to 80 per cent of overall costs of providing storm and wastewater services. Having up-to-date knowledge of the technologies available to repair or replace sections of systems can help municipalities prioritize operational and maintenance work and capital investment while improving system reliability and customer service.
Description
This best practice recognizes that each community is unique, and provides examples of municipalities of various sizes that have developed and implemented environmental practices. It recommends a strategic commitment to the environment as a first step, or to augment initiatives already under way within the corporation and the community. The best practice includes:
1. Operations and maintenance practices that can extend the life of the system and delay the need for repairs or replacement.
2. General issues to consider before selecting a technology.
3. A flow diagram outlining the process a municipality should follow to determine the technologies available for the specific situation.
4. Benefits and drawbacks of open cut construction, diameter reduction sliplining, fold and form sliplining, cured-in-place pipe, pipe bursting, horizontal drilling, internal joint seals, panel and section insert linings, chemical grouting, full and micro-tunnelling, auger boring and pipe eating.
5. A table summarizing limitations of various technologies.
6. Introduction to a two-step selection process and support information with an appendix outlining one simplified evaluation procedure for trenchless construction methods.
Benefits
Applying this best practice gives municipalities the knowledge required to make sound decisions about replacement or rehabilitation of sewer systems. The community, in turn, benefits financially, through better service and by better environmental protection when the best alternative is chosen to meet community needs.
2 Conclusion
In a world where no one group can claim ownership for the solutions to our most pressing public issues, such as urban infrastructure, Canada’s InfraGuide is an exciting approach; an innovative response that harnesses the wealth of knowledge that exists throughout the infrastructure community to create and disseminate best practices. Its unique value proposition lies not only in the use of a network approach for the creation and dissemination of those best practices, but also in the collaboration mechanisms that will result in joint value creation, linkages to broader policy processes and action and capacity development for all those involved.
References and Endnotes
Ambire SI Inc. (2003). National Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure: A Proposed Governance Approach Curry, Jefferson and Associates (2002). Legislative Framework Paper prepared as background material for the
InfraGuide.
Federation of Canadian Municipalities (2002). Early Warning, Will Canadian Cities Compete?
Table 1. Published Best Practices as referenced on page 2
Decision Making and Investment Planning (DMIIP)
1. Planning and Defining Municipal Infrastructure Needs
Tools for defining community needs and developing strategic plans to address them.
2. Developing Indicators and Benchmarks
A framework for developing the right indicators to support decision-making.
3. Developing Levels of Service
Steps for setting levels of service that articulate tradeoffs between services and costs.
4. Alternative Funding Mechanisms
Eight approaches to funding infrastructure beyond property taxes.
5. Coordinating Infrastructure Works
Successful strategies for coordinating infrastructure projects.
6. Investment Parameters for Municipal Infrastructure
Four approaches to setting parameters for timely and adequate spending on infrastructure.
7. Managing Infrastructure Assets
An overview of asset management, its components and multiple benefits.
8. Dedicated Funding
An overview for developing methodologies and applications of dedicated funding mechanisms for potable water, wastewater, storm water and road infrastructure.
Potable Water (PW)
1. Deterioration and Inspection of Water Distribution Systems
A primer on inspecting distribution and transmission mains.
2. Water Use and Loss in the Water Distribution System
The basics of water auditing – a tool for reducing costs and improving accountability.
3. Selection of Technologies for the Rehabilitation or Replacement of a Water Distribution System
Current options for pipe repair or replacement and how to make the best choice for local conditions.
4. Water Quality in Distribution Systems
Common water quality problems in distribution systems and how to address them.
5. Establishing a Metering Plan to Account for Water Use and Loss
A primer on water metering, current equipment, and options for pricing water.
6. Developing a Water Distribution System Renewal Plan
Basic approaches to planning renewal of water distribution systems.
7. Speed and Quality of Linear System Repairs
A road map for water utilities planning and improvements related to the speed and quality of linear system repairs.
Table 1. Published Best Practices as referenced on page 2
Storm and Wastewater (SWW)1. Selection of Technologies for Sewer Rehabilitation and Replacement
Current options for pipe repair or replacement and how to make the best choice for local conditions.
2. Inflow/Infiltration Control/Reduction for Wastewater Collection Systems
An overview of methods to reduce infiltration and inflow in sewer systems.
3. Source and On-Site Controls for Municipal Drainage Systems
A new approach to stormwater management.
4. Wastewater Source Control
A primer on controlling pollutants at source.
5. Wastewater Treatment Plant Optimization
A guide to improving performance of existing wastewater treatment plants.
6. Biosolids Management Programs
A framework for managing biosolids, advice on technologies and end uses.
7. Solids Inventory Control for Wastewater Treatment Plant Optimization
A framework for finding suitable solids inventory control to optimize wastewater treatment plant operation.
8. Assessment and Evaluation of Storm and Wastewater Collection Systems
A systematic and proactive approach for the assessment and evaluation of storm and wastewater collection systems.
9. Optimization of Lagoon Operations
Guidelines to help optimize the performance and capacity of lagoon-based wastewater treatment plants.
Roads and Sidewalks (MR)
1. Timely Preventive Maintenance for Municipal Roads
A primer on preventative maintenance – methods, setting priorities, and cost analysis.
2. Construction of Utility Boxes in Pavements
Step-by-step procedures to minimize the impact on pavement of new access boxes.
3. Restoration and Repair of Utility Boxes in Pavements
Step-by-step procedures to minimize the impact on pavement of access box repairs.
4. Guidelines for Sealing and Filing Cracks in Asphalt Concrete Pavements
A guide to treating cracks in pavement based on Canadian experience.
5. Rut Mitigation Techniques for Intersections
Recent advances in materials and methods to minimize ruts.
6. Priority Planning and Budgeting Process for Pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation
An eight-step approach to budgeting and timely maintenance.
7. Road Drainage, Design, Alternatives and Maintenance
Six steps to good construction of new roads and repair of existing ones.
8. Sidewalk Design, Construction, and Maintenance
Table 1. Published Best Practices as referenced on page 2
Environmental Protocols (EP)
1. Strategic Commitment to the Environment by Municipal Corporations
A guide to making an environmental commitment beyond compliance with regulations.
2. Accounting for Environmental and Social Outcomes in Decision Making
New ways to estimate the value of services provided by nature and to integrate them in cost-benefit analysis.
3. Demand Management
Guidelines for developing a Demand Management strategy including information needs and tools for initiating and implementing Demand Management programs.
Multi-discipline (MD)
1. Best Practices for Utility-Based Data (water, stormwater and wastewater)
A framework for acquiring the utility data needed for sound decisions.
2. An Integrated Approach to Assessment and Evaluation of Municipal Road, Sewer and Water Networks
A guide to establishing renewal planning that will maintain a high level of service while minimizing impacts on the environment and communities.
Table 2. Best Practices currently being developed as referenced on page 2
DMIIP Decision Making and Investment Planning9. Managing Risk (Fall 2004)
10. Public Consultation (Spring 2005)
PW Potable Water
8. Monitor Water Quality in Distribution Systems (Fall 2004)
9. Small System Operation and Maintenance Practices (Spring 2005)
10. Methodologies for Setting a Cross-Connection Control Program (Spring 2005) SWW Storm and Wastewater
10. Communication and Public Consultation for Biosolids Management (Fall 2004) 11. Biosolids Quality Management Programs (Fall 2004)
12. Stormwater Management Planning (Spring 2005)
13. Conveyance and End-of-Pipe Measure for Stormwater Control (Spring 2005) MR Municipal Roads and Sidewalks
9. Preservation of Bituminous Pavement Using Thin Surface Restoration Techniques (Fall 2004)
10. Dust Control for Unpaved Roads (Spring 2005) EP Environmental Protocols
4. Environmental Assessment (Fall 2004)
5. Environmental Management Systems (Fall 2004) 6. Land Use Planning (Spring 2005)
