Risk-Based Linear Asset Management at Fort Collins Utilities

Abstract

The City of Fort Collins Utilities Department (FCU) is in its second phase of a comprehensive asset management planning and implementation effort addressing its water, wastewater, storm water, and electrical utility assets. Key drivers for this effort included aging infrastructure, a need for more defensible budgets and rates due to limited funding, regulatory and legislative changes, and workforce transitions. This case study will highlight key features of effective asset management planning completed to date, and focus on completed efforts that have made progress to enhance asset management to promote sustainable infrastructure stability and more effective management of the utility's water, wastewater, and stormwater pipes. During 2009, FCU completed high level strategic planning efforts to determine its vision and key objectives for enhanced asset management. With this vision in mind, a comprehensive gap analysis was performed to examine FCU's current practices relative to international best practices in asset management. Collaborative efforts to examine key gaps and prioritize enhancement efforts led to a detailed roadmap of recommended next steps, including assessing the condition and criticality of pipes, towards enhanced asset management for FCU. During 2010, efforts focused on implementing the early tasks laid out in the asset management enhancement roadmap, including strategy enhancements, improved asset data management and investment planning, and associated business process improvements. Specific efforts that have been completed and will be presented include: (1) Asset management capabilities assessment and enhancement roadmap development (2) Levels of service target and guiding policies development (3) Extensive analysis and asset risk scoring of water, wastewater, and storm water pipelines and GIS mapping of these characterizations (4) 100-year risk-based financial forecasting for future inspection and repair/replacement of the pipelines over their expected life cycle In addition to highlighting key technical elements of efforts completed to date, this case study will discuss key success factors, challenges, and lessons learned by FCU staff as they embarked on this process. Understanding FCU's approach and experiences to date should benefit any organization interested in embarking on a more structured, comprehensive, and sustainable approach to enhanced linear asset management.