Plans are underway to release robots into City of Red Deer water pipes in the near future to pinpoint weaknesses and prevent ruptures.
Experiencing a massive water main break, as happened in Calgary last week, would be a worst case scenario for the Public Works department, said water superintendent Alex Monkman.
Calgary has some very old pipes that likely go back to the 1920s-'30s, but the massive one that ruptured on June 5, dates from the 1970s. This broken pipe was so large that a person could walk through it. The incident left Calgary's public works department scrambling to provide adequate drinking water to the Bowness area. Bans on outdoor watering and backyards fires were issued in the city of a million people and are still in place as crews continue repairs.
Monkman knows water main breaks are unpredictable and can occur despite regular maintenance, pipe replacement and other prevention measures. He added a lot depends on soil conditions and how close to the surface pipes are located, leaving them more prone to damage from freeze-thaw cycles.
"A chunk can come out of the concrete part, and some of these pipes are very difficult to install so there might have been installation or manufacturing problems..."
So far this year, Red Deer has had less than 20 water main leaks and they have all been fairly small and manageable, said Monkman. This means they caused no water supply disruptions for residents.
The cost of maintenance and repairing these water pipes comes out of utility payments and is built into the city's annual operating budget.
To stay further ahead of the game, the City of Red Deer is planning to bring in some robotic analysts in the next few years. Monkman explained that a lot more planning must first be done to determine how these robots can do their job without disrupting water service, since it will involve pipe shutdowns.
"Our high priorities are the hospital and the regional system," which supplies water to smaller centres like Ponoka and Red Deer County.
Monkman said robotic pipe inspection technology has been used by the oilfield for many years but has only recently become more cost-effective and accessible for municipalities. It's now advanced to the point that the little robots can be inserted into pipes through fire hydrants. They travel through pipes to inspect the condition of water mains, monitoring for thickness and anomalies.
"They can look at the valves to make sure they are operating properly."
Meanwhile, City of Red Deer crews are continuing with their annual maintenance and replacement program of pipes that in some cases go back to the 1930s or '50s.
This summer, roads have been dug up on 47th Avenue, 43rd Avenue and Ross Street. Monkman said part of the work is needed to connect the new Red Deer Justice Centre to the municipal water system and provide a greater water supply, in case of fire, to the expanded women's shelter.
With all of these projects we identify where we have had more frequent leaks to do maintenance or replace the pipes as a way of reducing the leaks."
Some good news is that Red Deer is a newer city, with much neighbourhood expansions happening in recent decades, so "the majority of our pipes are new PVC that's supposed to last over 100 years."
